Twelve years after the accident involving a Chanchangi Boeing 737-200 aircraft at the Port Harcourt Airport Omagwa, the Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) has released the report of the accident and three others.
The three other investigation reports include 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.
Akin Olateru, the AIB Commissioner, who released the accident reports on Tuesday, also said that the AIB has issued nine safety recommendations to improve the system and provide a crucial intervention with the aim of forestalling future occurrence.
According to Olateru, the Chanchangi accident involving a 737-200 with registration 5N- BIG which occurred 14th July 2008 had no safety recommendations, and the Nigeria CAR 2009 and revision in 2015, addressed the areas of shortcomings identified in the investigation.
He said, “There is no excuse to keep a report for seven years or more. As we speak, Chanchangi is gone and so if we released a safety recommendation, it will be an open item, and this is why there has to be speed in the release of accident reports.
“I cannot speak for my predecessors but 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.
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 commissioner said late decision to initiate a go-around after touchdown resulted in the loss of directional control of the aircraft after landing.
The accident report had a safety recommendation stating that the NCAT should ensure that where there are gaps in student pilots’ training, policies, and procedures, they should be put in place in the training programme so that the students are brought up to speed in both theory and practice.
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 inadequate regulatory oversight on flight operations and maintenance of foreign registered aircraft in Nigeria.
The AIB also issued four safety recommendations to the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).
The last accident report on 747-200, aircraft operated by Veteran Avia Airlines limited EK-74798 at the Abuja Airport had as contributory factors lack briefing by the Saudi dispatcher during pre-flight and ineffective communication between crew and Air Traffic Controllers among others.
