Engr. Charles Irikefe Erhueh, Commissioner, Banjul Accord Group Accident Investigation Agency (BAGAIA) in this interview with Aviation & Allied Business Journal discussed the growth and development of the air transport sector in Member States of the Banjul Accord Group, SAATM implementation, developments within BAGAIA and how BAGAIA handle incident and accident investigation amongst other topics.
Q: What has been your major preoccupation as the Commissioner of BAGAIA?
A: First of all, thank you for this opportunity to share with you what we do in BAGAIA. BAGAIA, as you know, is made up of seven member states that came together to form a regional Accident Investigation body which comprises Cabo Verde, Ghana, Gambia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Nigeria. Our major theme is actually to render services and to ensure that member states meet up with their obligation in terms of aircraft accident and serious incident investigations across the seven countries. So, at BAGAIA, we ensure that the states are in compliance with ICAO documents while ensuring they meet up with that international standard in terms of their aviation safety system. In terms of assisting them to meet up with some of those findings that ICAO actually put forward. In terms of capacity building, we ensure that the investigators are well trained as well, encourage them to invest in capacity building, because it’s better to invest in capacity building of professionals for the prevention of accident than to have an accident.
Q: Could you walk us through the process that occurs when BAGAIA is delegated to investigate an aircraft accident or serious incident?
A: First, delegation is something that is very paramount as part of Annex 13. It’s not new. If a state does not have the resources in terms of human and financial resources to actually carry out an investigation, they delegate. But mind you, that delegation doesn’t erode the sovereignty of the state because it’s actually the responsibility of the state of occurrence to carry out or to institute an investigation. But in the case that it is delegated, our process is very simple and easy. First, they need to officially communicate their intention to us that they want to give such responsibility to BAGAIA, either partially or fully. We have pool of investigators; we try to understand the kind of occurrence and look at our team and people that will be responsible to carry out that investigation, and then deploy them, but the cost would be borne by the state. An example is the case that we did in 2017. It was an accident that happened to an Antonov aircraft in Sao Tome. That is the accident involving CAVOK Airlines operated as flight CVK 7087, AN-74TK-100 aircraft registered UR-CKC occurred at Sao Tome International Airport, on 29th July, 2017. Sao Tome is not a Member State, it is a non-member state, but we were able to carry out the investigation and at the same time issued the final report within 16 months. We have this mechanism that once there is such delegation, we trigger our member states because the team of investigators are domiciled in the member states, not with BAGAIA. We write to them to release such persons (i.e. investigators) to carry out the investigation as a BAGAIA investigation.
Q: What challenges does BAGAIA face when conducting investigations across different member states with varying regulatory frameworks and resources?
A: First, one of the challenges might be language. Like in the case of Sao Tome, they speak Portuguese, and so we must have an interpreter, but some people that can speak English make it easy, especially when conducting your interview. One other challenge is funds. To mobilize these experts to site, funds are critical. Another one is how to recover the funds? For example, in the case of Sao Tome, BAGAIA was able to mobilize experts to site, do the download, take the flight recorders for download at the safety lab in Russia because at that time we don’t have golden chasis ( component) to download it in Nigeria, and the downloaded data was analyzed in Nigeria. So that’s why it was sent to Russia because it’s a Russian aircraft and they have the component for the download. Another challenge is trying to put together a team of investigators. These are some of the challenges we face, but at the same time, we are still able to surmount them.
Q: You stated earlier that your team members are located within Member States. What mechanisms are in place to train and certify investigators to international standards within the BAG Sub-Region all around Member States.
A: First, when we came to BAGAIA, we had just two Accident Investigation Authorities: one in Nigeria and another in Cabo Verde. We decided to develop capacity, to ensure that all the member states have an independent Accident Investigation Authority. That was the first thing that we did. As I speak with you, of the seven member states, we have five accident investigation authorities now. We are looking at enhancing the other two. I believe before the end of next year, we will have another one added and we will be left with one state. So, we are actually building capacity. Last year 2024, we did Basic Accident Investigation training in Liberia, because we have a Liberia Accident and Incident Investigation Bureau right now, thanks to BAGAIA. When we train people on accident investigation, we ensure to tell them that after this training they need to get ‘On the Job Training’. For instance, Nigeria is currently carrying out various investigation , you can be there as a participant to have hands-on experience on how it is done, we encourage that. In Nigeria, in year 2022, we were able to do training on the Role of Aircraft Accident Investigation in a State Safety Programme, we also carried out Flight Recorder Data Analysis workshop. All these are to build capacity. We are planning to do Ramp Safety Investigation training this year, but we have to get sponsorship to be able to do that. In as much as we advocate for capacity building, we still do it when resources are available. For example, in Liberia when we did the basic accident investigation training, we had about forty-three persons trained: three persons online and 40 on site. Majority of those persons were from Liberia but other countries were involved. We had people from all the member states. We had others from non-member states, like Togo, Egypt and Somalia. It is open; just for you – the states to bring your people (aviation professionals), so we train and it’s free, and you have a certificate at the end of the day.
Q: How do you handle situations where national interests or political pressures might conflict with ICAO-compliant investigation standards?
A: Normally, if a state needs an expert in accident investigation – just as an example – and the person is an inspector with a Civil Aviation Authority, because there’s a Memorandum of Understanding between those institutions that once you pick anyone from such entity to be a part of the investigation, all his duties are abandoned, what I mean by abandoned is that individual ceases to be working for the CAA at that time. As they are working for the accident investigation authority at that time in order to maintain objectivity and avoid any conflict of interest in the investigation, that person is temporary relieve of his/her duty as a CAA Inspector util such a time the investigation is completed and return back to her/his normal duties. Those are part of the measures we put in place to ensure objectivity. There’s no account that such a state’s policy will affect ours. Like in the case of conducting an investigation, we have a policy and procedures manual, we have safety investigation regulations that we employ. When we are delegated to conduct an accident investigation, our rules will apply, but they are not outside of ICAO SARPs. There’s no way there should be any conflict.
Q: What is your opinion on SAATM? Why do you think some African countries are yet to embrace it and what can be done to resolve this?
A: SAATM is a good initiative, a single African market for air operators is going to benefit everyone. But the point is to try to harmonize the policies. That is the issue. It’s best to have common policies, then regularize the pricing so that it would be easy. States have different taxes. Imagine you are operating from Nigeria to Sierra Leone for example, and they have different tax from yours. The thing should be, if Nigeria has collected that tax from you, it should be shared at a certain percentage with Sierra Leone.
Sierra Leone should not charge you again. We should have common taxes, so that we don’t have double taxes for airlines because when you tax airlines, it’s transferred to the passengers. The airline, like Overland, is there to make profit, so anything that will hinder cost reduction and profit, is going to be a problem. The other thing that still needs to be looked at is to ensure that every African state has an independent Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau, because that guarantees any operator that wants to operate to your zone that they are in line with standard and recommended practices, and if there’s any issue, they will be able to get a safety report from an independent Accident Investigation Authority that would be tenable for us -operators to improve on our safety practices.
Q: The successful implementation of SAATM will increase flight frequency across all African regions, how is BAGAIA preparing for this?
A: Our preparation is to ensure that every member state has an independent Accident Investigation Authority, because that is key. That gives the guarantee to any operator that wants to go to any zone, that if there is any safety issue, there are credible, subject matter experts that will be able to address such situation and give us good feedback for us to improve our system, not just the Civil Aviation system, but also the airline itself. There are sometimes you find some issues that are attached to the airline that they need to address. So, those are the ways. BAGAIA is prepared. I told you that we came in just with two Accident Investigation Authorities, now we have five out of seven. We are looking at to having six by the end of next year hopefully, if not this year, but by the end of next year, I guarantee that we will be able to get the last one. So, if every other member state has an independent Accident Investigation Authority, SAATM would be more embraced because airlines are confident that every state it will operate into will have an independent Accident Investigation Authority that will be able to address their concerns.
Q: What message would you like to share with stakeholders in aviation safety across Africa?
A: Aviation safety should be every of our concern, because the fastest way to reach any destination is through aviation. We should embrace safety. Whatever advocacy or awareness you have received, sell it down. We should understand that aviation is for all and safety should be paramount, because without safety in place, aviation will be doomed. So that is why safety is very critical. All of us should embrace it and advocate for it.