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Sunday, March 15, 2009
Govt Releases Wings Aviation Crash Interim Report
- Unlicensed Radio Operator Provided Flight Information At Airstrip
- Meteorological Equipment Not Adequate At Bebi Airstrip
- DNA Yet To Confirm Identity Of Crew
- Crew Inability To Respond To Warnings
By Wole Shadare
The Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) yesterday made public, the interim report of a Beechcraft 1900D aircraft belonging to Wings Airlines that crashed on March 15, 2008, in the mountainous forest of Busi Village in Cross River State.
Three persons on board, Captain Egbedi, a co-pilot and a cabin crew, Fubarata Jack, died in the crash.
However, the Commissioner of Accident Investigation Bureau, Dr. Sam Oduselu, disclosed that the initial tests conducted in South Africa had not yielded the desired results due to the condition of the remains, adding that investigation was still on-going even as the agency awaits the reports of the DNA test being conducted on the remains of the crash victims.
He equally disclosed that the Presidency had directed that the reports on the Bellview crash of 2005 and ADC crash of 2006 should be completed soon, adding that AIB was working round the clock to ensure compliance.
He prayed God to continue to strengthen the families of the victims. He said the report was not to indict anybody, but to avoid a recurrence.
The report read by Oduselu at a press briefing at the Presidential Wing of the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos, identified the causal factor of the accident to lack of situational awareness which led to a controlled flight into terrain, and the inability of the crew to identify their position while navigating to their planned destination.
At the briefing was the late Egbedi's daughter, Tamara, who occasionally wiped tears from her face.
She said life has been tough since the family lost its bread winner, adding that the loss was very painful.
Tamara described her father as 'wonderful, 'loving, ' caring", adding that since the report was not the final, she said everybody "is interested in what happened" as she spoke in good British accent.
Other issues noted during investigation according to the AIB chief, was that, "there was no approved approach procedure into Bebi airstrip, while "unlicenced radio operator was providing flight information services at the airstrip. Others include:
- The air strip lies under very busy airways (AU 604) from Europe to South Africa in a difficult, mountainous terrain.
- Bebi airstrip is equipped with one improvised Land Rover fire vehicle without water reservoir.
- Enugu tower descended the aircraft to 5000ft outside its control airspace not considering that the aircraft was not flying the filed flight plan route and the minimum safe altitude (MSA) of the area reported by Jepperson charts as 11, 200ft.
- The meteorological equipment in Bebi airstrip were inadequate and the few available ones were not calibrated.
Another contributory factor to the accident according to the report, was that, "the flight crew's deviation from initial filed plan to Bebi, poor Cockpit Resource Management (CRM) and the crew's inability to respond promptly to several EGPWS warnings.
Oduselu explained that the search and rescue installed with infrared camera, which has the capacity for detecting the wreckage came in seven days after search and rescue had commenced, stressing that it was found that the infrared camera on board was unserviceable.
It would be recalled that on March 15, 2008, the nation recorded the loss of a Beechcraft 1900D belonging to Wings Aviation which is reported to be owned by a former governor from the Niger-Delta.
The 15 seater turbo-prop aircraft marked 5N-JAL was first declared missing and was not found until August 30, 2008 by some local hunters in a thick, mountanous forest in Busi, Obalinku Council of Cross River State.
AIB had in September last year taken the recovered Flight Data Recorder (FDR) and the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) also known as the black box to the Air Accident
Investigation Branch (AAIB) in the United Kingdom for further decoding.
The black box was taken to Britain as the country did not have adequate facilities to retrieve data from the black box.
Massive human and material resources were deployed towards the search and rescue operation. It was initially speculated that the NCAA had connived with the ex-governor to smuggle the aircraft with money outside the country.
While the situation lasted, some hawks in the Presidency reportedly schemed on how to edge out some chief executives in the aviation agencies, even when the wreckage was yet to be found.
The AIB findings revealed that the aircraft was in serviceable condition, just as the pilots were qualified to fly it.
Immediately the wreckage was found, the accident investigators went into action. Vital components were recovered for analysis, just as the remains found at the crash site were sent out for forensic purposes.
The interim report noted that the crew experienced navigation problem enroute Bebi, just as investigation showed that they "recieved terrain warnings from Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System (EGPWS), and subsequently crashed with the three persons on board fatally injured.
According to Oduselu, the aircraft left Lagos airport at 0630hrs after filing a flight plan with estimated arrival time at 0825hrs at Bebi Airstrip.
"The crew deviated from their initial flight plan estimating IKROP 0806hr. The aircraft contacted Port-Harcourt, Enugu and Bebi control towers before contact was finally lost. The commander did not promptly initiate terrain avoidance action when the EGPWS sounded "Terrain!", Terrain!", Terrain!" Pull up!!!. The captain had a total of 852 hours on aircraft type while the co-pilot had 204 hours on type"
The AIB in its report however recommended the following;
- The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) should ensure that there is an approved and publish approach procedure for flying into Bebi airstrip.
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