The National Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB) has stood by its preliminary report on the recent Air Peace incident, insisting that the flight captain and first officer tested positive for ethyl, a by-product of alcohol, while a member of the cabin crew tested positive for THC, the active substance in cannabis.
Director-General of the bureau, Mr Alex Badeh, clarified the agency’s position on Friday during an interview on Arise Television, following public debate sparked by the toxicology findings.
He explained that contrary to speculations, the NSIB did not apportion blame for the incident nor suggest that substance use directly caused the accident.
“Nobody said the crew caused the crash,” Badeh stressed. “The report simply stated that the captain and first officer tested positive for ethyl, while the cabin crew tested positive for THC. This is not the first preliminary report we have issued, and it is certainly not the first toxicology test we have conducted on air crew in Nigeria.”
Badeh pushed back against suggestions that the agency was out to tarnish reputations, noting that the bureau had investigated accidents and published findings since its establishment in 2006 without controversy.
“If this accident had resulted in fatalities, the conversations we would be having today would be very different,” he cautioned.
