African airlines body, African Airlines Association (AFRAA), during the week called for tougher actions against countries that flout the United Nations air safety regulations.

Secretary-General of AFRRA, Christian Folly-Kossi, said African countries are failing to put in place policies to ensure proper air navigation, surveillance services for aircraft departing and landing in their airports, which make air rescue services difficult.

Folly-Kossi told aviation experts in Nairobi where they gathered at the AFRAA base to undertake a-two-day air disaster management training aimed at preparing the various African airlines on emergency responses to air crashes, that African states must be put on their toes to improve on aviation safety, especially the lack of critical safety equipment.

Citing the Kenya Airways plane crash, which occurred in Douala, Cameroon, on May 2, 2007, the AFRAA chief said it was regrettable that it took more than 24 hours to locate a plane that crashed only five kilometers away from the runway.

The Kenya Airways lost a commercial aircraft, a Boeing 737, with 114 passengers on board plus crew members shortly after the plane left the Douala international airport. It took more than 48 hours before the Cameroonian authorities could locate the aircraft and its passengers.

The delay in locating the crash sites is to blame for the high number of air accident casualties.

In a similar incident in Lagos, Nigeria, it took the authorities more than 24 hours to locate the wreckage of an aircraft, which had crashed just 10 kilometres from the runway.

"Most of the time, passengers, who could have survived the accident would perish because of the state's poor safety and rescue system," he said.

International aviation safety standards are set by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), a United Nations body, whose directives are to be implemented by the national civil aviation authorities of the respective states.

However, AFRAA has expressed concern over the lack of autonomy for most of the national civil aviation bodies in Africa, saying they act as part and parcel of the various African governments, making the enforcement of regulations difficult.

AFRAA called on ICAO to act tough on African states that fail to abide by the air safety standards, which is critical for the ensuring the survival of the air travelers.

Folly-Kossi said most airlines are making tremendous efforts to improve on aviation safety.

The European Union had sometime ago, blacklisted some African countries as a result of poor safety records.