Delta Apologises to AIB for Late Reporting of Accident

The Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) has disclosed that Delta Air Lines has apologised to the bureau over the airline’s failure to notify the government agency of the emergency landing involving its Airbus 330-200 aircraft last Tuesday night.

The General Manager, Public Affairs, AIB, Tunji Oketumbi, made this known in Lagos yesterday and said the airline’s crew later visited the head office of the bureau.

Atlanta bound Delta Flight 55, which departed Lagos last Tuesday night returned minutes later to the Murtala Muhammed International Airport following an issue with one of the Airbus 330-200’s two engines.

Leading a team of the airline officials, including the technical crew of the flight and the airlines Lagos Airport Station Manager to the Ikeja head office of AIB around 5p.m. local time yesterday, Miss Shannon Masters, Manager, Air Safety Investigation, expressed the airline’s regret for the oversight, stressing that it was not intentional.

Masters said: “We sincerely apologise for the error and we promise to cooperate with AIB in the investigation of this occurrence.”

The Commissioner of AIB, Akin Olateru, while accepting Delta’s apology, said the organisation 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,” he said.

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.

Oketumbi explained that 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.

According to ICAO regulation, the state of registry of the aircraft and the airline might serve as observers.