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Well, it could be yours truly that has greater
problem. I must confess that ...Read the full article.

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I was in Nigeria for Xmas 2005,at the motorpark in lagos trying to negotiate transport to the East.
My concern was the safety of my family as the vehicle was getting loaded and over loaded.I complained but other passengers were indifferent.
But just before we set off a man of god came to pray for our safe journey.We made it to our destination.
Lesson: to hell with maintenance and maximum load advice,invest in a good pastor and you will survive......Nigerian airlines and Richard Branson please note.

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It is not aborishade fault for the crash.. All they need is to bring Nuru Ribadu in.. because the aviation is criminal runnning the place.. the directors of FAAN are all millionaires. while their salary shows they do not make that much.. Plane are allow to flight if you can give egunje.. Aviation in nigeria is about bribe.. Solve that, and all the problem would be solve.. FAAN and NAMA and NAHCO demand bribe from people before they can use thier service. so what do you except.. Babangida and Abacha destroy the aviation industry..

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Crash: I won't quit —BORISHADE
By Ben Agande, Kenneth Ehigiator & Chinyere Amalu
Posted to the Web: Thursday, November 02, 2006..Vanguard Newspapers

ABUJA — AVIATION Minister, Professor Babalola Borishade, said yesterday that he would not resign as being canvassed in several quarters across the country following Sunday’s crash of ADC Flight 053 in Abuja.

Two of the survivors of the crash were yesterday discharged from the National Hospital, Abuja while another arrived Lagos into the waiting hands of her parents.
The management of ADC said it had set in motion the process of paying compensation to the families of the crash victims.

Prof. Borishade, speaking to State House correspondents at the end of the weekly meeting of the Federal Executive Council, said succumbing to pressure to resign would amount to running away from his duty post.

“I accept responsibility but taking responsibility does not mean that you have to run away from your dutypost,”he said, adding: “The calls for my resignation are based on the fact that people thought I should have spiritual or divine power, which I don’t have. And if divine power belongs to God, and if they expect me to have divine power, it is not possible for me to have it. And if that is what they need for an AviationMinister to have, then, I have no objections, I will just leave. I know I don’t have divine power.”Somebody should take responsibility. I take responsibility because I am the Minister of Aviation.Taking responsibility does not mean that you run away from your duty post,” he said.

Asked if he was under pressure, he said: “I know that I have responsibility. I am in charge of the Ministry ofAviation. My officials are doing their job. And I am very proud of the job they are doing. This accident isagainst the run of our efforts because I have a crop of fine officers who are now well engaged, and theyare doing their jobs the way they should be done professionally.

“So, really we don’t feel that this accident occurred because we didn’t do certain things and that is why Isaid that the only thing I should have added to it is to have the divine power to change the weather bychanging the forecast; or to stop an aircraft from coming down when it is probably destined to do so. Andthat kind of power is not usually available to humans.

“I am not rejecting their advice to resign. I have told you that the condition under which they are makingthis call is that they are looking for somebody who has divine power which I don’t have. And if that is the only quality required for aviation minister, I don’t qualify to be there,” he said.

On being quick to blame the pilot and with four air crashes during his tenure, he said: “You can begin toextend that argument that during the tenure of Mr President, we have x number of air crashes. You can begin to go on and on. But what we are saying in essence is that we are doing our best to make the air space safe. The facilities that were not there before, we have put them in place now.

“These facilities were properly deployed on the day of the accident. For example, the weather was clearlyindicated. There were three aircraft on ground. They got the same advice. Two of them said we would wait for a better weather. Seven minutes later, the weather was okay. So, what ought to have happened is that somebodyshould have waited for seven minutes before take-off. And that wasn’t too much.

“And we need to say this because there would be a lot of speculations about what happened. If those otheraircraft were not on ground, probably, we would be thinking of something else. But on this particularoccasion, from the transcript, the boy at the tower actually shouted: ‘this is a gusty wind sir!’ and theman said okay, which was quite a warning. And when I saw that, I thought that good airmanship should have stopped that man from taking off,” he said.

On whether his comments on pilot error would not prejudice the investigations, he said: “The investigation panel was not at the airport at that time. They are going to look at the crash site andbegin to extrapolate. But these are facts we know on the ground immediately. So, we need to let the peopleknow, otherwise there would be speculations. We know that this man was actually warned not to take offbecause the weather was bad enough.”

Answering question on previous reports, he said: “We are lucky we have the black boxes of the Sosoliso. We got the voice as well as the data recorder. It accelerates investigation if you have those two. In the case of Bellview, we didn’thave any of these boxes. So, they have to begin to deduce and eliminate possibilities. And that takes alonger time than the one you can hear what the pilot said, the one you have the statistics of the vibrationand you can easily conclude. That is why the Sosoliso report came out earlier than the Bellview report.”
The Federal Cabinet meeting vowed to vigorously pursue the on-going reforms in the aviation sector.

Pilots warn of more crashes

However, the National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers (NAAPE) said yesterday that unless the Federal Government moved fast at replacing vital navigational facilities at the nation’s airports, they might be more air crashes.

NAAPE, which was reacting to the crash of ADC Airlines flight 053, for the second time in two days, faulted the Aviation Minister’s claim that the airports were now equipped with the latest weather reading facilities, while also dismissing his claim that the pilot of the crashed plane disobeyed air traffic controllers’ order not to take off.

President of NAAPE, Engr. Mustapha Sanni Haliru, told newsmen at a briefing yesterday that although the Federal Government was currently doing a lot to equip the airports with modern facilities, its best was not good enough to avert further accidents in the aviation sector.

“The minister came on air to tell the nation that we have one of the best weather report system in the world. I don’t know where he got that from. There will be more crashes if we don’t move faster enough to equip the airports for use of our members,” Haliru said.

His contention was corroborated by a pilot member who said on his return from Qatari, capital of Doha last week, he was equipped with weather report from the Gulf city up to Ndjamena only to get to the country’s airspace without any weather report.
Engr. Haliru said his association had kept challenges faced by pilots away from the public all this while to avoid scarring the public from air travel.

I would continue to fly

One of the survivors of last Sunday’s ADC Airlines’ flight 053 crash, Miss Esther Jeyibo, arrived Lagos yesterday into the waiting hands of her parents and other family members. She said nothing would stop her from continuing to fly.

Miss Jeyibo, who was discharged from the National Hospital in Abuja where she was treated after the crash, came into town aboard an Aero Contractors plane which touched down at exactly 8:40 a.m.

Clad in a black Tshirt upon blue Jeans trousers, Miss Jeyibo was aided out of the aircraft in to the arrival lounge of Aero’s terminal building by her elder brother, Christopher, who accompanied her from Abuja.

Her arrival drew the attention of other passengers immediately they knew who she was.
Recounting her experience on the day of the crash, Jeyibo, a youth corps member serving with ADC Airlines in Sokoto, said she was happy to be alive and gave glory to God for the feat.

She told her story: “I was going to Sokoto. I came to Lagos for a visit and I was returning on Sunday when the crash happened. We boarded the plane in Lagos to Abuja. The flight was okay and when we got to Abuja, we took our passengers and the plane taxied off.

“When the plane got into the air, it was raining before we left Abuja Airport. While the pilot was trying to balance, there was lightening followed by thunderstorm and the light in the plane began to blink. It was very obvious that the pilot was trying to get us stable.

“But there were so many movements, up, down, left, right and I had my friend by my side. So, we held on to each other, screaming Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Blood of Jesus, Holy Ghost fire. The next thing we knew we were on the ground.

“Well, I looked left, I looked right, no sound, everywhere was quiet, but I was still strapped to my seat belt, so I started crying. I was screaming: could somebody help me? Can somebody get off this seat belt. There was nobody to answer.

“Then I called on to my friend, Esther: are you still there? Are you still there? She said she was there. I said: Esther, are you fine? She said she was I’m fine. I mustered the little energy I had to unstrap myself from the seat belt and then I called on Esther: let’s leave this place.

“We came out. We were still in vicinity of the plane. When we came out, Esther was still carrying her bag, then I remembered I brought a hand bag too. I went back into the plane to get my bag.

“I checked where I sat which was still intact, I didn’t find my bag. Then I came out and there was fire at the other side of the plane. So, I told my friend, Esther, please help me watch that fire, if it’s coming close, tell me.

“I went back again to look for my bag and I found it in a squeezed up area. I pull it out and my shoes were underneath my seat. There were two other ladies on each other. The one beneath still looked alive and the one on top was very weak.

“Esther and I removed the girl on top, so that the one below could stand. She was able to stand, but we didn’t have the energy to pick the weak one.”
She said they had to scurry out of the crash site as a result of two other explosions, adding that while they were on their way out of the site, they were rescued and taken in an ambulance to a clinic at the airport, from where they were eventually moved to the National Hospital.

Jeyibo, who hails from Burutu local government area of Delta State, said God saved her for a purpose, adding that she would wish to fly again and again.
Her word of reassurance to many Nigerians who travel by air, Miss Jeyibo said: “They should always pray.”

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Please visit www.petitionline.com/borisha to sign the petition against the Nigerian Aviation Minister. If the president wont sack him and the he wont resign, we the people must state clearly that we are tired of his incompetence.

Thanks.

Please spread the word.