Chinelo Obogo
The Accident Investigation Bureau has released the investigation report of the accident involving a Chanchangi Boeing 737-200 aircraft at the Port Harcourt Airport Omagwa 12 years after it occurred.
The Bureau also released three more reports and made nine safety recommendations to forestall future occurrence. The other investigation reports includes a Nigerian College of Aviation Technology ( NCAT) Tampico TB-9 aircraft with registration 5N-CBJ, a Beechcraft aircraft with registration N564UZ belonging to Shoreline and a Veteran Aviation Airline EK-74798 at the NNAMDI Azikiwe International Airport.
The AIB commissioner, Akin Olateru who released the accident reports on Tuesday, November 3, said with the release of four additional reports, the Bureau has so far released a total of 54 final reports since its establishment in 2007 and a total of 35 final reports have been released since the inception of the current administration.
On the Chanchangi accident involving a 737-200 with registration 5N- BIG, AIB said it received notification of the accident on the 14th July, 2008 and investigation commenced on the 15th July, 2008. The plane had commenced a scheduled domestic flight from Murtala Muhammed International Airport, (DNMM) with call sign NCH138 for Port Harcourt International Airport (DNPO).
Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) flight plan was filed for the flight. There were 47 persons on board (41 passengers, 2 flight crew and 4 flight attendants) and 3 hours fuel endurance. At 18:45 h, NCH138 reported five miles to touchdown. Approach Control acknowledged and instructed NCH138 to report field in sight and subsequently handed over to Tower on 119.2 MHz. When contacting the Tower, NCH138 was cleared to land on RWY 21, wind 0100/10 kt and was advised to exercise caution due to wet runway. NCH138 acknowledged the clearance.
NCH138 landed hard and bounced three times on the runway. According to the ATC controller, after touch down the aircraft rolled in an s-pattern before it overran the runway. NCH138 made a 180° turn with the right engine hitting the ground. The aircraft came to a final stop on the left side and 10 m beyond the stopway. All occupants on board were evacuated; one passenger sustaining a minor injury.
The Bureau said the accident was caused by the decision to land following an unstabilised approach (high rate of descent and high approach speed). A go-around was not initiated. Another factor was the deteriorating weather conditions with a line squall prevented a diversion to the alternates. The runway was wet with significant patches of standing water. However, no safety recommendation was made.
On the accident involving NCAT, on 26th September, 2018 at 09:28 h, the investigation identified the late decision to initiate a go-around after touchdown which resulted in loss of directional control of the aircraft after landing as one of the causes of the accident. Other contributory factors were inappropriate control inputs during landing roll and intermittent interruptions in training program. One safety recommendation was made.
On the accident involving the Tampico TB-9 aircraft operated by Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT) Zaria, with nationality and registration marks 5N-CBJ, AIB said late decision to initiate a go-around after touchdown which resulted in loss of directional control of the aircraft after landing.
On the Beechcraft C90 aircraft with nationality and registration marks N364UZ, operated by Shoreline Energy International Limited (SEIL), the aircraft crashed on a farm-land and was engulfed in flames with the two occupants fatally injured. The AIB discovered a non adherence to approved storage procedure as well as approved from return from storage procedure as well as inadequate regulatory oversight on flight operations and maintenance of foreign registered aircraft in Nigeria. The AIB made four safety recommendations all to the Nigerian civil Aviation Authority ( NCAA).
The last accident report on 747-200 aircraft penates by Veteran Avia Airlines limited EK-74798 at the Abuja Airport had as contributory factors lack of briefing by the Saudi dispatcher during pre flight, missing runway status drink Abuja ATIS information, ineffective communication between crew and ATC among others. Four safety recommendations , three to the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria ( FAAN) and one to Veteran Avia was issued by the Bureau.
Speaking at the end of the report presentation, Olateru said: “There is no excuse to keep a report for seven (7) years or more. As we speak Chanchangi is gone and so if we released a safety recommendation it will be an open item, this is why there has to be speed in the release of accident reports.
“I cannot speak for my predecessors all I can say is there were a lot of challenges with workforce and procedures and so with the help for the National Assembly and the Minister of Aviation, we have been able to temporarily solve some of these problems.”