Another air crash averted; 89 escape death
ANOTHER plane crash was, yesterday,
averted in Kaduna as IRS Airline plane with 89 passengers on board was assisted
to land in Kaduna after it developed mechanical problems. The aircraft was said
to have had hydraulic problem and on landing at the airport had to discharge
its passengers on the runway instead of taxiing to the parking lot.
Speaking on the incident, Managing
Director of IRS, Mr. Yemi Dada said, the F100 plane with registration 5N-HIR,
left Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos for Kaduna with 89 passengers on board
and “on final approach to Kaduna today (yesterday), our cockpit crew got a low
hydraulic in System One warning and decided to take precautionary measures to
ask for ground confirmation that all gears were down and locked. The aircraft
landed normally after the control tower had confirmed that the gears were all
down normally. The crew proceeded to land but followed procedure to disembark
on the runway and not taxi in accordance with the procedure.
Princess Stella Oduah-Ogiemwonyi
Minister of Aviation
“All passengers disembarked normally
and the aircraft was towed to ramp. The maintenance crew are inspecting to
confirm the issue that caused the warning to the crew. Updates will follow
shortly.”
This incident came few days after
Associated Airlines plane conveying the body of the former governor of Ondo
State, Chief Segun Agagu and 20 others crashed 31 seconds after take-off from
the Murtala Muhammed Airport, MMA, Lagos runway killing 15 of the 20
people.
Associated Airline plane was faulty
The Accident Investigation &
Prevention Bureau, AIPB, in its preliminary report of the accident released in
Abuja, weekend, said investigations revealed that the aircraft was already
faulty before the cockpit crew decided to embark on the journey. According to
the report, the pilot, Capt. Abdulraham Yakubu, insisted that the crew must
continue with the journey even when the co-pilot suggested that the flight
should be aborted. The aircraft crashed exactly 31 seconds after take off from
the runway.
Meanwhile, former Secretary to the
Federal Government, Chief Olu Falae, whose son, Deji, was one of the 15 persons
who died in the Associated Airlines plane crash said, weekend, that the pilot
was on a suicide mission and that the crash was avoidable.
Falae speaks
Falae who spoke in Akure while
receiving some leaders of the South South Peoples Assembly who paid a
condolence visit to him, argued that the plane crash was strange to a sane mind
going by the several unheeded warnings by the crew members about the condition
of the plane.
He wondered why the crew members
ignored several warnings as regards the condition of the plane but embarked on
a suicide mission.
Falae said, “It was a suicide
mission. If they had heeded the warnings all these people would not have died.
The crash was avoidable. The genesis of the whole accident was the lack of
necessary infrastructure in the country because the remains of Dr Agagu needed
not to be flown at all if the road is good. In Nigeria, you cannot travel by
road and the air is not safe again, the situation is a serious one. Even if the
aircraft is alright, what do you say of the mind of the pilot? This crash was
totally avoidable.”
Earlier, the South-South Peoples
Assembly had said the preliminary report showed that the crash was avoidable
and advocated periodic stress and psychiatric tests for pilots flying in
Nigeria. Leading the delegation of the Assembly, Brigadier S.E Oviawe,
said the preliminary report actually showed that the pilot embarked on suicide
mission.
Oviawe presented the condolence
letter signed by the Acting Chairman of the Assembly, Air Commodore Idongesit
Nkanga and the Secretary, Chief Ayakeme Whisky.
He noted “if the pilot had been in
the right frame of mind, he ought to have listened to the advice of the
co-pilot even after he had been warned by the device in the aircraft. For the
pilot to have rejected the warning of the co-pilot and the aircraft equipment
itself showed that something was wrong.”
They asked the Afenifere leader to
“take solace in God and be comforted by those good things that people have been
saying about his late son, who had lived for the principle of service for which
the family was noted. We feel your pains and grieve with you for this
irreparable loss. Going by myriads of problems confronting the country, there
is need for all to sit down and look at the affairs of this country in order to
find lasting solution to those problems.
AIB preliminary report is an open
report
Aviation experts, yesterday, in
their assessment of last Friday’s preliminary report released by the
AIPB, on the crashed Embraer 120 aircraft belonging to Associated Aviation
Services Limited said the report was open as some salient issues like the
certificate of Air worthiness of the plane was not addressed.
Speaking on phone with aviation
correspondents from London, UK, the immediate past Rector of the
NigerianCollege of Aviation Technology, NCAT, Zaria, Capt. Adebayo Araba, said
the report did not indict any agency in the sector. He, however, noted that
AIPB did not tell the public some salient points concerning the status of the
aircraft.
According to Araba, AIPB in its
preliminary report was silent on the last time the plane flew before it crashed
on October 3, 2013. He also queried the certificate of airworthiness of the
aircraft, stressing that the public would like to know the exact period this
was last issued by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA.
Araba said, “There are some salient
points AIPB has not told the public. Although, the report was open and did not
indict anybody, but their report did not tell us the status of the aircraft;
when was the last time it flew before the crash? When was the last time the
certificate of airworthiness was issued and the one that expired, when did it
expire?
“Also, when was the last time the
maintenance of the aircraft was done by the airline operator and where was it
done? Were the crew current on the plane? When was the last recurrent training
the crew had on the plane? AIPB as an investigator in the sector should put
their searchlight in these areas and tell us more about these. These are
salient points that will tell the public about the true picture of the plane.”
Also, a serving flight engineer who
craved anonymity said the report did not tell the public if the flight pilot
had a current licence considering the kind of decision he took, even when the
first officer was calling for caution. He said, “I doubt if the late pilot had
a valid flight licence. When last did he go for training and retraining? Did
Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority revalidate his licence, and if yes, who did
and when? I think the report, though preliminary is still open. There are still
issues to be addressed and questions answered. There is the need to make
preliminary report detail so that the picture will be clearer from the
begin.”
AIB commences investigation
Meantime, the Nigeria Civil Aviation
Authority, NCAA, said, yesterday, that Accident Investigation and
Prevention Bureau has commenced investigation into the IRS Airline plane
that had mechanical fault and had to be guided to land and discharge its
passengers on the runway.
In a statement, yesterday, night,
Capt. Fola Akinkuotu , Director-General, NCAA said “An aircraft F-100 with Reg
no 5N-HIR , operated by IRS Airline landed safely, following a hydraulic
leakage on the runway of Kaduna airport today, October 13, 2013. NCAA directed
the airline to tow the aircraft to the apron and Accident Investigation &
Prevention Bureau, AIPB has commenced investigation into the incident. ”
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