Frederick Obeng Adom, Deputy Minister of Transport
The government has reiterated its commitment to fulfilling all obligations to the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and other partners to promote aviation safety and security within the West African sub-region.
Deputy Minister of Transport, Frederick Obeng Adom, stated that establishing the Aircraft Accident and Incident Investigation and Prevention Bureau (AIB-Ghana) was in line with Ghana’s commitment to building the necessary institutions and enhancing its capacity to ensure compliance with regional and international standards.
As a critical sector in moving goods and services, he said, the country would ensure that the required frameworks were in place to ensure effective, efficient and safe airline operations.
Mr Adom was speaking at the opening of a five-day Technical Committee Meeting of the Banjul Accord Group Accident Investigation Agency (BAGAIA) in Accra yesterday.
The meeting aims to harmonise policy and procedure manuals on investigating aircraft accidents for countries in the West African sub-region.
Mr Tampuli said the government would ensure that the AIB Ghana was given the necessary support and policy direction to make it well capacitated, strengthened and strategically positioned to perform its functions effectively.
As one of the countries with the safest and secured air space, as confirmed by the ICAO Coordinated Validated Mission, Ghana achieved the highest effective implementation score of 89.9 per cent. He noted that the government was working to maintain the standard.
Mr Tampuli said the government has reiterated its commitment to fulfilling all obligations to the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and other partners to promote aviation safety and security within the West African sub-region.
He said the country would work with BAGAIA and other regional bodies in the areas of technical support and guidance to enhance the safety and security of the airspace.
Charles Irikefe Erhueh, Commissioner of BAGAIA, said the association was focused on strengthening the alliance in the sub-region and working toward ensuring safer skies bereft of accidents and incidents reduced to the barest minimum.
He said the accident was a major component of civil aviation, which helped the process of safety through research findings and safety recommendations.
Mr Erheh called on member countries to make available financial and human resources to BAGAIA to enable it to carry out key functions on safety-related activities.
Commissioner of AIB-Ghana, Akwasi Agyeibi Prempeh, noted that the agency had conducted investigations, developed procedures, policy, and administrative manuals for accident investigation since its establishment last year.
Currently, he said, the necessary infrastructure was being developed to aid the implementation of the manuals, adding that some were already operational as the structures had been set up.