Union faults NAPIMS on stoppage of Bristow’s contracts over crash

In response to the call by Nigeria’s National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS), a corporate services unit of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), for the termination of Bristow Helicopters contracts in Nigeria following the emergency landing of a Bristow-operated Sikorsky S-76C++ helicopter on February 3, 2016, aviation union has called for restraint.

NAPIMS said the fatal accident and recent incident had called attention into questioning Bristow’s maintenance and inspection programmes, prompting the call for its joint partners to terminate all Bristow Helicopter services contracts.

But the Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association (ATSSSAN) has asked President Mohammadu Buhari to call the NAPIMS to order over its directive to terminate all contracts with Bristow Helicopters over the ditching of its Sikorsky type machine.

In a statement issued by Okewu Benjamin, national president of ATSSSAN, the association questioned the authority and grounds of which NAPIMS gave that directive.

Okewu argued that the technical audit of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) was carrying out its standard procedure used all over the world when an airline or operator is involved in two or more air accidents within a spate of time.

“NAPIMS is only but a corporate service unit of the exploration and production Directorate on the NNPC and have not power to act instead of the regulator, NCAA”

Okewu maintained that the only organisation recognised by international civil aviation organization (ICAO) to ground any airline operations and declare it unsafe to fly is the NCAA.

ATSSSAN advised NAPIMS not to use the unfortunate situation of the crash or ditching to play the politics of diverting Bristow contracts to other parties where they seemed to have vested interest in the name of safety as it is too early to make such conclusion.

He urged all to wait for the final report and decision of the NCAA audit and directives on the matter.