Nigeria Accident Investigation Bureau, AIB, yesterday released the report of the accident involving a Chanchangi Boeing 737-200 aircraft at the Port Harcourt Airport Omagwa. The current Commissioner of AIB, Engineer Akin Olateru released the Chanchangi report Twelve years after his predecessors sat on the report. Olateru also released three other accident reports. 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. The AIB Commissioner also said that AIB has issued nine(9) safety recommendations to ” improve the system and provide crucial intervention with the aim of forestalling future occurrence”.
According to the report, the Chanchangi accident involving a 737-200 with registration 5N- BIG which occurred 14th July, 2008 had no safety recommendations . 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 of 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 said ” late decision to initiate a go-around after touchdown which resulted in loss of directional control of the aircraft after landing caused the accident”. On how to prevent future occurrence, AIB recommended that ” the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology should ensure that where there are gaps in student pilots’ training, Policies and Procedures 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 made four safety recommendations to the Nigerian civil Aviation Authority , NCAA, three to the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, and one to Veteran Avia was issued by the Bureau.
