Delta airline apologises to AIB

Delta Airlines today in Lagos apologised to Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) Nigeria over the airline’s failure to notify the government agency of the emergency landing involving its Airbus 330-200 aircraft on Tuesday night. Atlanta bound Delta Flight 55, which departed Lagos Tuesday night returned several minutes later to Murtala Muhammed International Airport following an issue with one of the Airbus 330-200’s two engines.

A statement issued by General Manager, Public Affairs, Accident Investigation Bureau, Tunji Oketunbi stated that a team of the airline officials including the technical crew of the flight and the airline’s Lagos Airport station Manager led by its  Manager, Air Safety Investigation,  Miss Shannon Masters visited the Ikeja head office of the Bureau around 5pm local time, to express the airline’s regret for the oversight, stressing that it was not intentional.

“We sincerely apologised for the error and we promise to cooperate with AIB in the investigation of this occurrence,” Masters said. The Commissioner/CEO of AIB, Akin Olateru, an engineer, while accepting Delta’s apology said AIB had already commenced investigation into the serious incident and welcome the airline’s cooperation. “We look forward to receiving cooperation from Delta Airlines as we work to determine the cause of this serious incident in the interest of safety.“

The Nigerian accident investigation body had frowned at the  American carrier’s failure to notify it of the serious incident involving its aircraft in line with Nigerian air safety regulations and international practice. The airline was believed to have notified the United States National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) of the occurrence immediately in line with the US laws. Nigeria, as the state of occurrence under the International Civil Aviation organisation (ICAO) Annex 13 is responsible for investigating any aircraft occurrences within her airspace. The State of registry of the aircraft and the airline may serve as observers.