Bristow crash: We will not hire foreign expertise if need doesn't arise - AIB

The Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB), has said it will not hire foreign experts to extract information from the black box of the crashed Bristow helicopter, if the need does not arise.
Tunji Oketunbi, the General Manager, Public Affairs of AIB told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Monday.

Oketunbi said that its accident investigators had been well trained on how to handle the task.
``At the moment, our investigators are up to the task to download the information from the device, but we may need technical assistance of foreign experts, if the need only arises.’’

Oketunbi said that its accident investigators had been well trained by a Canadian firm, CAE Flightscope, supplier of the laboratory equipment on how to download content from any crashed aircraft black boxes.
``The supplier of the laboratory equipment came to Nigeria sometime ago to train our accident investigators on the use of the equipment for a week or so.
``Our investigators are now competent to extract stored information from any black box brought to the laboratory but the supplier of the equipment may give technical support if the need arises,’’ he said.

The AIB used to spend millions of dollars flying the vital objects overseas to decode.
Oketunbi said the training and technical support was part of its agreement with the supplier before the equipment was bought from the company.

``This is part of our agreement before the equipment was purchased from them, it is not just to supply us the equipment, there is also technical support because it will take time.
``Maybe over a period of time, to offer us technical support on anything we need from them. This is because our investigators cannot understand the equipment overnight.
``This is due to the fact that the equipment are not used on daily basis to have made them to be grounded enough with the handling of the equipment.
``You may have accident today and you may not have one for the next two to five years.
``And during the cause of using the equipment, the bureau may still need their technical support, and this supplier is just a phone call away from us,’’ he said.

Oketunbi said that AIB was not under pressure to extract stored contents from the black box of the ill-fated Bristow helicopter that crashed on Wednesday.
He noted that extraction of such information required no time-line in achieving the task.

``There are a lot of other things we are doing, for example, we are examining the Bristow helicopters' wreckage at the moment.
``We have seen the black box, it is with us now but we still need to gather more facts from different agencies, interview people that have information about the crash incident.
``We will definitely download the information from the black box, but I don't have the exact time it will be done," he said.

SUN/NAN/LH