Committee inaugurated to investigate Starbow accident

The Minister of Aviation, Mrs Cecilia Dapaah, has inaugurated a five-member committee to investigate the Starbow Airline accident that occurred at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) on November 25, 2017.

About 12:20 pm on that day, Starbow Airline Flight S9 104 bound for Kumasi skidded off the runway during its take-off at the KIA.

The committee, chaired by Air Commodore Nana E.R. Krakue (retd), is to establish the cause of the incident.

Other members of the committee are Group Captain G. S. Parker and Squadron Leader C. Gaddah, both of the Airforce Base, Wing Commander Emmanuel Akatue and Edward Agbodjan from the Ministry of Aviation as Secretary.

Importance of safety

Inaugurating the committee, Mrs Dapaah underscored the importance of safety as one of the determining factors for the successs of the aviation industry.

She said the country had an institutional and policy framework to enhance the safety and security of the country’s air services.

Mrs Dapaah said the setting up of the committee was in accordance with the Civil Aviation (Amendment) Act 2016 which provides that: “The Minister responsible for aviation shall, when an incident occurs in the state of Ghana, order an independent investigation into any accident involving a civil aircraft, whether such accident was required to be notified under these regulations or not.”

Accident investigator

Mrs Dapaah noted that the act further empowered the minister to appoint or designate any person qualified as an accident investigator or team of investigators for the purpose of initiating and carrying out the investigations immediately and reporting as soon as possible.

“It is in accordance with the provisions of the act that I have constituted this committee to investigate the incident involving the Starbow aircraft which occurred at the KIA on November 25, 2017,” she said.

Recommendation

Air Commodore Krakue (retd) expressed the appreciation of the committee for the honour done them.

He said since the incident occurred two weeks ago, there had been a lot of speculations, so it was good that a group had been officially inaugurated to find out how and why it happened. He gave the assurance that the committee would work diligently and independently to get to the bottom of the matter.

Background

Following the crash involving one of its aircraft at the KIA, Starbow Airlines issued a statement and halted all its operations until further notice.

This incident adds to previous mishaps involving Starbow flights in 2014 and 2015.