Untold tragedies
Last weekend,
Nigeria was hit by unimaginable tragedies that would have far-reaching
consequences and hopefully significant changes for the good in what we are and
who we are as people and part of the greater humanity of the world.
To have two air
crashes in the space of 24 hours was just unmitigated disaster that had to be
systemic in its Genesis and utterly appalling to all concerned, only the whole
truth can begin to assuage the pain of loss suffered by all affected, the loss
of life in both tragedies just leaves one numb as questions linger.
From what has been
observed, reported and gleaned from most especially, the Dana Air crash on
Sunday on the outskirts of Lagos, it is pertinent that some fundamental issues
be highlighted in our approach to disaster and emergency response in Nigeria –
these need to be addressed by all forms of communication, information
dissemination, education and public enlightenment.
Bad or negligent maintenance?
The comment I had
with regards to the cargo plane crash in Ghana of an aircraft that took off
from Nigeria was related to the assumption that the brakes had failed. I opined
that no matter how badly an aircraft is serviced, brake failure is not what you expect to hear of, it would appear I had spoken too soon on the matter of airworthiness
and aircraft safety.
The next day, with less than an
hour in the air and approaching Lagos to land, Dana Air lost its two engines
and crashed into a highly populated area of Lagos, there had to be something
fundamentally wrong with the aircraft for it to lose two engines on such a
short flight, we hope that the black boxes reveal much more about why this
happened.
Initially, there are
these issues, our preparedness for impending emergencies when Mayday calls are
made and what possible action the crew might have taken after the Mayday call
to avert ploughing into crowded areas.
Obviously, the
matter of maintenance of fleets of aircraft, their airworthiness, the age of the
fleet and the other issues surrounding the regulation of airlines in Nigeria
are brought to the fore by these tragedies, one will hope that all systems and
processes have been above board but serious doubts remain.
Feeding our bizarre appetites for the macabre
On the ground we
were met with another set of troubling circumstances.
Crowds had gathered
out of curiosity and interest to view and gawp, not doing much to help the
victims of either the crash before the plane exploded or those whose houses had
been demolished by reason of impact and collision.
Then the first
pictures that appeared showed the crowds standing on parts of the destroyed
aircraft risking the contamination of essential evidence that would have had to
be gathered to determine the cause of the crash.
Soon afterwards, other pictures
appeared in their full gruesomeness of the presumably dead in some cases and
possibly gravely injured but barely alive. The picture takers had no scruples
about posting the grotesque, macabre and downright intrusively disrespectful of
the victims as if they were doing a great service of wholesome dissemination of
information.
It behoves one to condemn
in the clearest terms the inurement we have acquired to tragedy that we think
nothing of sharing these shocking pictures almost for the fun of having the
technology to project the utterly reprehensible – we have seen the same in the
appetite for sexually explicit rape videos, the unfortunate blowing to smithereens of a
bomb disposal officer and much else – you wonder where does the savage Neanderthal
in us stop gaining ascendancy and allow a sense of civility and humaneness to
make us cultured humans again.
The crowds and civic responsibility
What annoyed me the most was the way crowds impeded the access of emergency services to the
accident scene. You wonder if we need basic civics classes to be told and to
know that emergency services should and must have priority of access, right of
way and literally no impediment to getting to an accident scene.
Their ability to
access the scene without obstruction and then the ability to leave the scene freely with victims for medical care must not need for anyone to be informed. Alas! I
learnt something of Nigerians I somewhat did not know in 46 years of being associated with that
country, we are ostentatious, hedonistic and found with the most modern of
things but are primitive, backward and ignorant when it comes to emergency response
either by the services or by the reaction of the people at large – it was at first
shameful, then unforgivable and ultimately beneath contempt.
That the armed
forces had to use whips and twigs to beat away the crowds like animals to
cordon off the place for the emergency services and investigation of the air
crash site speaks volumes, there are issues of crowd control but more
importantly as a matter of civic responsibility people should just know to make
way, disperse and make allowances for constituted authority to have way.
It is something we
most definitely have to address, probably to promulgate laws that criminalise people and
owners of any obstructions in the way of emergency services when they are out to fulfil their
urgent duties.
Fuelling oil fires with water
The fire services unpreparedness in dealing with an aircraft fires, was evident from one of the
pictures I saw. Water? At first, they did not have enough to quench the fires,
but more importantly, aircraft fires are doused with foam because the active
propellent is kerosene – water is the very last thing you need to attack a burning
inferno fuelled by petroleum products.
Now, the houses
that caught fire by reason of the accident might well have needed fire-fighting
with water but I doubt a distinction was made of what caused the fires and how
to tackle each fire as they raged.
To read that rescuers
clashed at the scene of the crash just took my breath away. What were they
thinking? How could they not reach a compromise of coordination for the sake of
those they came to help? Even in the midst of such great tragedy egos and
megalomania reared its ugly head as if this was some competition or contest for
a prize – it is shameful.
Rescue minded even when recovering
Then, the
authorities had immediately switched to recovery mode as soon as the crash was
announced saying there were no survivors when information suggested the plane
did not catch fire for another 20 minutes after impact giving the impression
some might have survived the crash only to die from negligence and the lack of
sensibility of gawking crowds when at least some rescue attempts should have
been made.
This informs our mind-set
of disaster, we are so lucky in sub-Saharan Africa not to suffer from
earthquakes else no one will care if people were buried alive and died weeks
after, people discovering the bones many years after the event.
We need a new
thinking to disaster response that all is not lost until we have done all
possible to assess, access, investigate, review and confirm by examination that
indeed, all is lost. The first action should always be to rescue possible survivors and the recovery of remains must be the very last resort without extinguishing all hope.
The last affront
As if the tragedy
was not palpable enough, the flight manifest was made public long before all
relatives and survivors had been informed of the tragedy. In a country where
the management of data is poor and the collection of the same for use is
sketchy, one might say the only way to get the information out was to publicise
it but for people to first learn of bereavement on social media or the news
wires before they were individually and personally addressed as they waited in vain at the airports or watched television at home does
leave much to be desired.
We have to have
better ways to handling this kind of information, with dignity for the victim,
with respect and consideration for their relatives and survivors and much more
with a sense of compassion. The press comes after those particular humane needs
have been satisfied with all due care and attention.
People with hearts of gold
My friends, there
is much to think about after this tragedy and I am moved at the way people have
acted with great resolve and initiative to help the victims on the ground, to
obtain therapy and counselling for families, to gather help and succour for all
concerned – we have the capacity for great human compassion, you sometimes wish
a few more of those with minds like that were there to help in the immediate
aftermath of the crash. See #DanaCrashAction
Other views on the
Nigerian Aviation industry can be found in the links below. Presented as
tweets.
