The Accident Investigation Bureau, Nigeria (AIB-N) has released final reports on serious incident involving Cessna Citation 560 XLS aircraft with nationality and registration marks 5N-HAR operated by the Nigerian Police Airwing which occurred at Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Airport, Bauchi, Nigeria on October 3, 2018.
According to Akin Olateru, commissioner/CEO AIB, what led to the serious incident was uncoordinated flight as a result of inadequate Crew Resource Management (CRM) that led to the partial release of parking brake, which resulted in rejected take-off.
Olateru mentioned that other factors include inability of the aircraft to get airborne after attaining the rotation speed (Vr) during take-off roll even with aft elevator pressure and non-adherence to Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) as contained in the Cessna Citation 560 XLS+ Airplane Flight Manual.
According to AIB report, on 3rd October, 2018 at about 07:29 h, a Cessna Citation 560 XLS+ aircraft with nationality and registration marks 5N-HAR operated by the Nigeria Police (NP) was on a flight routing Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja (DNAA) to Akure Airport, Akure (DNAK) via Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Airport, Bauchi (DNBC) and back to Abuja (DNAA).
On board were six persons including three crew members (Pilot, Co-pilot and Cabin Crew (CC)), and three passengers with fuel endurance of 4 hours 20 minutes. The Pilot was the Pilot Flying (PF) and the Co-pilot was the Pilot Monitoring (PM).
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At 08:11 h, the aircraft landed on runway (RWY) 35 in DNBC. After landing, the aircraft was taxied and parked normally. While taxiing to the apron, the pilot requested for a quick turn-around from Air Traffic Control (ATC) and opted to file a flight plan by radio, which the Duty Air Traffic Control Officer (DATCO) granted.
According to the PF, he set the parking brake and shut down the left engine for the passengers to disembark. Thereafter, PF instructed the cabin crew to put the chocks ON. The PF maintained that he was not aware that a transit walk-around was carried out on ground Bauchi by the PM.
The crew reported that during the take-off roll on RWY 17, after Rotation speed (Vr) was attained, the aircraft did not get airborne.
According to the PM, on take-off run at Vr, the PF stated that the aircraft would not lift-up (rotate) and he commanded for an abort. All persons on board disembarked without injury.
The AIB-N also released final report on the serious incident involving a Boeing 747-400 aircraft with nationality and registration marks 5N-DBK operated by Max Air Limited, which occurred at the Minna Airport, Nigeria on 7th September, 2019; and report on the serious incident involving a Boeing 737-500 aircraft with nationality and registration marks 5N-AIS operated by Azman Air service Limited, which occurred at Port Harcourt, Nigeria on 3rd January, 2019.
The AIB-N also gave causal factors, contributory factors and safety recommendations for the incidents.
