Aviation sector regulators have identified human errors as responsible about seventy to eighty per cent of aviation accidents globally.

Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshall, Sadiq Abubakar, said this at the opening of a one-day seminar on Safety in Aircraft Maintainace Environment twenty-eighteen at the Nigerian Air Force, NAF, base in Kaduna, themed” Promoting Safety Culture in Aircraft Maintainace”.

Abubakar said NAF was strongly determined to work with regulators and other stakeholders in ensuring that all operational as well as engineering units improve on their present standards, recalling that several reports worldwide have shown that aviation accidents were events with human factors being the chunk of the accidents.

He said the International Air Transport Association Safety report found that twenty-six per cent of the accidents have maintenance cause event which started the accident chain.

Abubakar said with these startling statistics, it was essential to urgently address aircraft maintenace safety issues with renewed vision and vigour, saying the aim was to enhance operational efficiency through reduction or elimination of platforms losses caused by avoidable accidents.

He said the seminar was designed primarily to facilitate free exchange of views and ideas by major stakeholders and practitioners with the aim of enhancing safety practice in NAF aircraft maintainace, saying what was expected would be inclusive in nature by providing a platform for genuine view and contribution on common safety factors generally being overlooked that affect maintainace standards.

Abubakar who spoke through Chief of Standard and Evaluation, Air Vice Marshal Charles Ohwo, said the event was to also draw lessons from reviewed maintenance mishaps that would enlighten NAF engineers and technicians to avert future recurrence.

Earlier the Air Officer Commanding Air Training Command, Air Vice Marshal Muhammad Idris, said the NAF Institute of Safety had trained a lot of personnel who are expected to be safety practitioners in their respective units.

Idris said this year alone, the institute had trained 78 officers, airmen and airwomen with another 45 students pilots undergoing the safety officers course, saying the efforts signify the high premium the service places on aircraft maintenace and aviation safety.