An Incident/Accident Investigation Committee has been instituted to investigate last month’s incident involving Starbow Airline Flight S9 104 bound for Kumsi from Accra.

The five-member Committee is made up of Nana E.R Krakue (Rtd Air Commodore), Group Captain G.S Parker (Airforce Base), Wing Commander Emmanuel Akatue, Squadron Leader C. Gaddah (Airforce Base), and Edward Agbodjan (Ministry of Aviation).

On Saturday, the 25th of November, a Starbow aircraft skidded off the runway during its take-off run and at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA).

According the Minister of Aviation, Cecilia Abena Dapaah, who was speaking at the committee’s inaugural ceremony in Accra, the work of the new committee, seeks to enhance safety and security of air services in the country.

The move, she noted, is also in accordance with section 13.6.1 of the Ghana Civil Aviation (Amendment) Act, 2016 (Act 2016), which states that: “The Minister responsible for Aviation shall when an accident occurs in the State of Ghana, order an independent investigation into any accident involving a civil aircraft whether such accident is required to be notified under there Regulations or not”.

“It is in consonance with the provisions of the Act, that I have constituted this Committee ti investigate the incident involving the Starbow aircraft,” the minister said.

The Act further empowers the Minister under Sub Section 13.6.1.and 13.6.2, to appoint or designate any person qualified as an Accident Investigator to be an Investigator-in-Charge and or team of investigators for the purpose of initiating and carrying out the investigation immediately and reporting as soon as possible.

Ms. Dapaah tasked members of the committee to work diligently and independently in the discharge of their duties, and propose recommendations that will be helpful in ensuring safety and security of air services in the country.

The Chairman of the Committee, Nana E.R Krakue (Rtd Air Commodore) assured of his team’s readiness to investigate the incident fully, to avoid the many speculations that according to him, are being circulated on different platforms about the situation since it happened.

“Within this period, we have seen a lot of public interest in the matter, but in the absence of any official address on the matter, so many stories are going around.

I am glad that today, we have set up this board to find out exactly what happened, and we will work diligently to get to the bottom of the matter,” Mr. Krakue noted.