The Accident Investigation Bureau, Nigeria ( AIB-N) has released a report on the crash of Quorum Aviation’s Bell 206 helicopter, 5N- BQW which went down at Opebi, Lagos and claimed the lives of all crew onboard in August 2020.
The AIB-N said the crash was caused by insufficient fuel in the aircraft to sustain the aircraft to it’s landing point. The Bureau refered to this as ‘Fuel endurance’.
“Endurance is not measured from zero to end, you must have a minimum at any given time and you have to calculate your alternate airport,” Akin Olateru, AIB-N commissioner said.
According to the report, there was fuel exhaustion at low altitude and low speed landing, leading to loss of control in flight.
The report also blamed the decision of the pilot to continue the flight to the intended destination with insufficient fuel instead of landing as soon as practicable in line with section: 12.1.12 of Quorum Aviation limited operations manual Part A.
It pointed further at lack of effective management supervision of the airline’s flight operations as well as inadequate safety oversight.
Following the report, the AIB- N issued three safety recommendations:
“The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority ( NCAA) should ensure that air operator certificate holders who wish to combine flight duty with multiple post position, provide NCAA with comprehensive safety risk mitigation measures to ensure that safe operations can be achieved.
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”The NCAA must ensure Quorum Aviation Limited takes steps to avoid further violation of its approved safety procedures and the Nigerian Civil Aviation regulations ( NCARs)
“Quorum Aviation limited must make sure that all its personnel are well acquainted with their respective schedules of responsibilities and are capable of discharging their duties effectively in line with their standard operating procedures.”
The AIB-N boss also reeled out other accidents and serious incidents reports including Sky Power Express with registration marks 5N- BTV which occurred near Abuja on October 4, 2018, serious incident involving Nigeria Police aircraft with registration 5N- MDA on August 3, 2019; another Skypower Express Cessna aircraft 5N- AP which happened in Niger State November 19, 2019.
Finally, Engineer Olateru announced the Bulletin which gave insights to the ground collusion between a Central Bank of Nigeria ( CBN) truck AKD765FK and a Nigerian Airforce Bell 412 helicopter with registration NAF 600 at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja in 2020.
