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Nigerian president summons airline chiefs after accident

Posted by AFP on 2005/12/11 | Views: 596 |

Nigerian president summons airline chiefs after accident


Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo has summoned airline executives and aviation officials to an emergency meeting after three fatal accidents in seven weeks cost a total 224 lives.

LAGOS (AFP) - Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo has summoned airline executives and aviation officials to an emergency meeting after three fatal accidents in seven weeks cost a total 224 lives.

Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo has summoned airline executives and aviation officials to an emergency meeting after three fatal accidents in seven weeks cost a total 224 lives.
"To underscore his grave and growing concern for the industry in the aftermath of yesterday's air crash in Port Harcourt, President Obasanjo is to personally preside over a meeting in Abuja of all stakeholders in Nigeria's aviation sector," said Obasanjo's spokeswoman Remi Oyo Sunday.

"The meeting, which will be convened in the shortest possible time, is to be attended by all airline operators in the country, aviation industry officials and other local and international aviation sector specialists," she added, in a statement. No date was given for the meeting.

On Saturday, a Sosoliso Airlines DC-9 passenger jet from Abuja crashed on arrival at Port Harcourt airport in the south of the country. 103 people were killed instantly, two more died of their injuries overnight and the remaining five on board were injured, officials said.

This crash came just seven weeks after another airliner exploded and ploughed into fields north of Lagos, killing all 117 on board, and a month after two pilots were killed when a light plane operated by a Nigerian oil company crashed outside the northern city of Kaduna.

In all, 1,019 people have been killed in 39 serious aviation accidents in Nigeria since 1991.

Following the Lagos crash Obasanjo accused Nigeria's aviation safety agencies of corruption and vowed to plug the "loop-holes" which have seen airport facilities deteriorate and allowed the country's private plane operators to use ageing, badly maintained jets on domestic routes.

"It is expected that conclusions reached at the meeting will help to give more practical effect to President Obasanjo avowed determination to carry out urgent and much needed reforms in Nigeria's aviation industry," Oyo's statement said.

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