Aviation

Here, we provide resources that allow you to report and write authoritatively about Nigeria’s aviation sector whether you are a beat reporter or doing a one-off reporting on aircraft incidents in Nigeria.

1) ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION BUREAU

Accident Investigation Bureau is an agency of the Nigerian government responsible for the investigation of civil aircraft accidents and serious incidents within Nigeria. Its objective is to improve aviation safety by determining the circumstances and causes of air accidents and serious incidents and making safety recommendations intended to prevent recurrence of similar accidents.

But what is more important and useful to you as a reporter is the Accident Investigation Database, which documents reports of some past air accidents in Nigeria. This definitely is a key resource in contextualizing your report.

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2) AVIATION SAFETY NETWORK

Aviation Safety Network is an immensely useful platform which provides you with a comprehensive database of air accidents all over the world. This page leads you to a database of aircraft accidents in Nigeria since 1941. The information here may not even be available at the Nigerian ministry of aviation.

Also find interesting statistics of air accidents here.

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3) AIR TRANSPORTS OF HEADS OF STATE AND GOVERNMENT

Air transports of heads of state and government is a Wikipedia page which gives you an idea of the numbers and kinds of aircrafts in the fleets of world leaders. It is not clear how regularly it’s updated but it sure provides you with the kind of information the Nigerian government, for instance, won’t make public.

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4) NIGERIA CIVIL AVIATION AUTHORITY

The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority is the regulatory body for aviation in Nigeria. It became autonomous with the passing into law of the Civil Aviation Act 2006 by the National Assembly and assent of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

As you report on Nigeria’s aviation industry, it’s important that you pay attention to its website because it provides you with basic information about regulations, licensing and airports. It also publishes important, newsworthy circulars to pilots and airlines. During accidents, it publishes passenger manifests.

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5) INTERNATIONAL CIVIL AVIATION AUTHORITY (ICAO)

ICAO  is specialized agency of the United Nations, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)was created in 1944 to promote the safe and orderly development of international civil aviation throughout the world. It sets standards and regulations necessary for aviation safety, security, efficiency and regularity, as well as for aviation environmental protection. The organization serves as the forum for cooperation in all fields of civil aviation among its 191 Member States.

The website provides you with important documents and information about international aviation. It also provides links to all Accident Investigation Agencies all over the world.

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6) NATIONAL TRANSPORT SAFETY BOARD

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is the independent agency of the United States Government responsible for the investigation of transportation accidents. The NTSB participates in the investigation of aviation accidents and serious incidents outside the United States in accordance with the Chicago Convention of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPS) provide in Annex 13 to the Convention. Find  reports of some foreign accident investigation in which the NTSB participated here.

And if a Nigerian airline flying into the United States is being investigated for any incident, you usually will find details here.

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7) REGULATION.GOV

This is where you find the regulatory actions the NTSB is taking against airlines. So if the agency takes regulatory action against a Nigerian airline flying into the U.S., you will find details there.

You can also find documents about Nigerian airlines flying into the U.S. For instance, find link to a docket containing documents on Arik Airline here. Also find link to Virgin Nigeria’s (later Air Nigeria) docket here. The defunct Belview Airline also has a docket because it used to fly into the U.S. Find link to it here.

Some of these are documents and information you won’t find in Nigeria.

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8) PLANESPOTTER.NET

Planespotter.net  provides details on aircraft history. It tells you about the aircraft in the fleet of perhaps all the airlines in the world – manufacturers, years of manufacture, previous owners and present owners. Using this tool, you can determine the ages of aircraft in the fleets of airlines in your country.

This page takes you to the Nigerian section of the site. To check the planes in Dana Airline’s fleet for instance, go here.

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9) SKYTRAX 

SKYTRAX prides itself as the world’s leading Airline and Airport review site for over 681 airlines and 725 airports. It also does passenger reviews and opinions for Airlines and Airports worldwide. It offers seat reviews, seat maps, the world airline star rating and airport star as well.

Just go to the homepage and click the airline or airport which rating you want to check. For instance, this link takes you to the page containing the rating for Nigeria’s Arik Air.

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10) FEDERAL AIRPORT AUTHORITY OF NIGERIA

Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) is a service organization statutorily charged to manage all commercial airports in Nigeria and provide service to passenger and airlines. The site provides you with detailed information about Nigerian airports as well as passenger traffic statistics in those airports.

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11) ROTOCRAFT 

Rotocraft Registration database  contains contains registration data for civil rotocraft. This includes information on registration, helicopter type, construction number, registration history, and final fate. There is no owner/user/operator info in the database and the data are strictly used for non-commercial purposes. The data are grouped in civil rotorcraft registers for every country in the world. The database is continuously updated with new information.

For a list of helicopter registered in Nigeria, go here. For complete (Historical) Civil Rotorcraft Register of Nigeria (5N), click here.