#DanaCrash: Investigators submit preliminary Report to Government

Accident Investigation Bureau has submitted a preliminary report on the Dana crash to the Federal Government, sources at the Ministry of Aviation in Abuja have confirmed.

The sources said on Sunday that the preliminary report submitted by the agency over a week ago contained basic facts about the tragic crash, which led to the death of about 163 people in Iju-Ishaga, Lagos on June 3.

A top official of the ministry, who also confirmed the development to our correspondent, however, said a more detailed interim report of the crash would be ready between three and six months.

The source said, “The Dana crash preliminary report has been submitted to the government over a week ago. The preliminary report contained just some basic facts about the crash. The information therein is for government consumption. The preliminary report, as you know, is not too detailed. It only gave facts of some things that happened to the ill-fated plane before the crash.

“The interim report, which is more detailed, will be submitted between three and six months, that is sometime around September and December, depending on the pace the team investigating the accident can move. The final report will then come later after the interim report. That is the manner the three reports will be submitted. The final report is expected to be ready in one year.”

The spokesman, AIB, Mr. Tunji Oketumbi, confirmed that the agency usually submitted three reports to the government namely preliminary, interim and final reports.

He, however, said he could not tell if the preliminary report had been submitted to the government, adding that he would not be able to comment on the timelines of the reports.

He said the reports would be ready as soon as the investigators completed their work.

Oketombi said, “We follow Annex 13 of the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s procedures and regulations on accident investigation. The investigation is still ongoing. The Annex 13 of ICAO tells what to do in case the final report is not ready in one year. In such case, what the agency is expected to do is to brief the public on the efforts we have made so far. In other words, at the first anniversary of the crash, the agency is expected to brief the public on the progress made so far in case the report is not ready. That is what ICAO Annex 13 tells us. But in any case, the investigators are dong their work, so we expect that things will work as expected.”