By GABRIEL AGBEJA

The Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB-N), Nigeria on Wednesday in Abuja released three final accident reports to the public.

AIB-N Commissioner, Mr. Akin Olateru, said the reports were essential to the fulfillment of the Bureau’s mandate of investigating aircraft accidents and serious incident with aim of enhancing safety.

According to him, the enhancing safety is actualized through safety recommendations issued toward assuring safe skies in Nigeria and globally.

Olateru said the final report on the serious incident involving a Boeing 747-400 aircraft with nationality and registration marks 5N-DBK operated by Max Air Ltd., occurred at the Minna Airport, Nigeria on Sept. 7, 2019.

According to him, the investigation identified causal factor to be excessive rudder and aileron inputs at short finals phase of the approach.

He said contributing factors could be the decision to continue the ILS approach runway 05 with “erratic localizer signals and an un-stabilized approach with a no go-around decision.”

He said seven safety recommendation were made for the investigation.

Ateru said the serious incident involving Cessna Citation 560 XLS aircraft with nationality and registration marks 5N-HAR operated by the Nigerian Police Airwing occurred at Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Airport, Bauchi, Nigeria on Oct. 3, 2018.

According to him, the investigation identified the causal factor to be uncoordinated flight as a result of inadequate Crew Resource Management (CRM) that led to the partial release of parking brake, which resulted in rejected take-off.

He said contributing factors were inability of the aircraft to get airborne after attaining the rotation speed (Vr) during take-off roll even after elevator pressure and Non-adherence to Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).

According to AIB-N boss, five safety recommendations were made for the investigation.

Adeteru said serious incident involving a Boeing 737-500 aircraft with nationality and registration marks 5N-AIS operated by Azman Air service Ltd., occurred at Port Harcourt, Nigeria on Jan. 3, 2019.

According to the commissioner, causal factor is the failure of Nos. 4 and 5 bearings of engine No. 2 leading to loss of power during approach.

He said one of the contributing factors was the failure to recognise the abnormal engine conditions (surge) during cruise phase and not making appropriate decision.

“This might have been connected to the insufficient technical knowledge and loss of situational awareness.

“Another contributing factor is non-implementation of the Flight Data Monitoring programme in accordance with 2.2.5.1 of Azman Air Safety Management System Manual.

“Also, non-rectification of the No. 2 engine vibration anomalies recorded over a period of eight months; inadequate regulatory oversight of the Azman Air Safety Management System,” he said.

He said the AIB-N issued one immediate safety recommendation to the NCAA in the preliminary report and seven further safety recommendations were issued in final report of the investigation.

Adeteru said details of the reports, which included the factual information, findings, analysis, conclusions and safety recommendations on the investigations, were available for download on AIB-N website.

He said the AIB-N remained committed through improving processes, human capacity and equipment, to fulfill its mandate effectively, purposefully and professionally.

“Included in the reports are 20 safety recommendations which were addressed to regulatory body, Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), affected airlines, Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), an aircraft manufacturer, Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria, among others.

“The newly released reports make a total of 75 aircraft accident reports released by the Bureau since its establishment in 2007 and a total of 56 reports released by the current administration from 2017 till date.

“This year alone, seven reports have been released. The Bureau has also released a total of 252 safety recommendations since inception with 171 of the recommendations released by this administration,” he said. (NAN)

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