Plane Crash: AIB charges NCAA on increased oversight on foreign aircraft

Chinazor Megbolu

The Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) has charged the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to increase its safety oversight on foreign aircraft in a bid to prevent crashes.

AIB disclosed this on Tuesday in its final report on the accident involving a foreign beechcraft C90 registered and operated by the Shoreline Energy International Limited.

The crash happened at Barakallahu village near old Kaduna Military airport on May 24, 2011.

The AIB report also suggested that NCAA should also increase the safety measures on registered general aviation aircraft operating in the Nigerian airspace.

The report further stated the aircraft crashed on a farm land of about 878 meters short of the Military runway 23, which engulfed into flames with the two occupants as casualties.

The AIB report stressed that the crash was as a result of the inability of the pilot to control the aircraft to land due to insufficient power to enable the pilot maintain the appropriate approach to cover the required distance to the threshold.

The other reports, the Bureau noted, was caused by non-adherence to approved storage procedure and inadequate regulatory oversight by the authority on flight operation and maintenance of foreign registered aircraft in Nigeria.

The AIB, however, recommended that the NCAA should partner with the old Kaduna Military Airport Authorities in a bid to ensure that 1000 meters beyond Runway 23 should easily be accessible in accordance with internationally accepted standards and stipulated in ICAO Annex 14.

The Bureau also advised that they should ensure that an Airport Emergency Plan (AEP) is developed and maintained in line with the Nigeria Civil Aviation Regulations Part 12.

The AIB posited that the accidents involving Chanchangi Boeing 737 dash 282 after 12 years in Port Harcourt, which occurred on July 14, 2008 and a Boeing 747 dash 200 operated by Veteran Avia airline in 2013 at the Abuja airport, with the recommendation to the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), to capture all essential information on automatic terminal Information service.

Other reports are the Tampico aircraft TB-9 accident operated by the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology, (NCAT), Zaria, which happened at the Zaria aerodrome on September 26, 2018, the AIB recommended that the college should ensure that there are gaps in student pilots’ training and policies, procedures should be put in place in the training programme so as to enable the students be brought up with speed in both theory and practical.