The black box of the crashed Dana Airline aircraft will be taken out of the country on Thursday for proper analysis, it has been revealed.
The Minister of Aviation, Stella Oduah, who dropped this hint on Wednesday in Abuja, also said that the reports of other air crashes in the country were ready but had not been released because approvals had not been given for it.
Oduah, who spoke with State House correspondents, said that she was convinced that a thorough job would be done in finding out the cause of the Dana flight 992 crash.
Oduah said she was impressed with the quality of work being done by members of the Accident Investigation Bureau when she visited the scene of the accident.
Oduah told news men: “At the site of the incident, there were people with AIB t-shirts.
“They were gathering information.
“They cut the parts from the aircraft, looking for clues.
“Every and any information that they take will be taken back to the lab where it will be analysed to get exactly the reason for the accident.
“But in addition to that, because we do not have a lab, things like the black boxes, for instance, we need to take them outside the country for proper analysis and then it comes back.
“The black boxes are leaving on Thursday (tomorrow) to US.
“I want to also say that amongst the team that worked with AIB, there are international experts and so you are not likely to have collusion or reports that will have integrity issue.
“So I want to assure that the report you will get will be a very authentic report.”
Oduah also told news men on enquiry that reports on past crashes in the country such as those of Sosoliso Airline and ADC were ready but had not been released because the approving authorities had not given the go ahead.
She said though she was not in office when the reports were submitted, she remains of the opinion that the reports should be released so that lessons could be learnt from them.
Oduah said: “I was’t there before and cannot answer for them now.
“I can tell you what is happening now.
“I also want to say that all the reports of past aircrashes, the Sosoliso, ADC, etc are ready and when we get the proper approval to release to the public we will do so.
“It serves no purpose to keep it because it is for public knowledge.
“There are lessons we should learn from such incidences and not allow it reoccur again.
“That is the purpose.”