By Olayemi Esan
As a highly technical service operating sophisticated aircraft, equipment and military hardware, flight safety should be inherent in all NAF daily activities.
The Chief of the Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Oladayo Amao disclosed this at a meeting, which was held at the MD Umar Blue Room, at NAF Headquarters Abuja.
Air Commodore Edward Gabkwet, Director of Public Relations and Information, in a statement quoted Air Marshal Amao saying the meeting focused on the steps taken by various NAF units towards addressing safety issues highlighted by the standing NAF Safety Audit Committee set up earlier in the year to chart a way forward in maintaining high safety standards in aircraft operations.
Air Marshal Amao further emphasized that the meeting should serve as a veritable platform for addressing all safety concerns so as to proffer realistic and lasting solutions to flight safety issues.
According to the CAS, “Overall, the essence of the meeting must be geared towards making the NAF a safer, more effective and efficient instrument of National Power.”
While commending all NAF personnel for maintaining high safety standards, the CAS enjoined members of the SRB to explore ways of ensuring the sustenance of high safety standards in the conduct of all NAF air operations.
Earlier, the Chief of Standards and Evaluation (COSE), Air Vice Marshal (AVM) Olusegun Philip stated that the SRB, as the designated safety management body, is primarily tasked with appropriating safety policies and guidelines for the entrenchment of safety culture in the NAF.
He also disclosed that so far, about
100 NAF personnel have undergone various safety courses within and
outside the country in the last 6 months
According to him,
efforts were on to collaborate with the United States Air Force to
organize an in-country safety management training for more NAF personnel
before the end of the year.
AVM Philip went further to state
that training activities at Nigerian Air Force Institute of Safety which
were hitherto suspended following the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic
will soon resume with new courses to broaden the scope of safety
education in the NAF.
He thereafter urged members of the Safety Review Board to continue to support all safety activities across the entire NAF strata through effective Monitoring and Evaluation.
The meeting had in attendance Branch Chiefs, Air Officers Commanding as well as NAF Safety and Evaluation officers drawn from NAF formations and units nationwide.
