The Singaporean government and the International Civil Aviation Organisation have offered support to the Accident Investigation Bureau to revive Nigeria’s $5.8m aircraft incident/accident investigation laboratory located in the Federal Capital Territory.The AIB is the government agency responsible for the investigation of aircraft accidents and serious incidents with a view to proffering safety recommendations that can prevent reoccurrence of similar events.

In order to enhance its capacity to determine the causes of aviation accidents, the AIB in 2011 signed a $5.8m contract with the CEA/Flightscape of Canada to install aircraft incident investigation equipment at the AIB laboratory in Abuja.

The Commissioner/Chief Executive Officer, AIB, Akin Olateru, stated that the laboratory was designed to, among others things, download information from Flight Data Recorder and Corkpit Voice Recorder, which he described as necessary requirements for a thorough and accurate accident investigation.

In his speech made available to our correspondent on in Abuja after the conclusion of the first phase of training for in-house investigators of the AIB by experts from Singapore and ICAO, Olateru stated that the laboratory was installed in 2012, adding that it was used to download the flight recorders of Associated Airlines’ aircraft crash of 2013.