Louis Ibah
The Nigerian Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB), yesterday, released the final report on the cause of six air accidents that occurred in the country between 2012 and 2018, hinging most of the crashes on pilots’ error and inadequate regulatory oversight on airlines by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).
Commissioner/CEO of the AIB, Mr. Akin Olateru, briefed aviation correspondents in Lagos on the outcome of investigations on the six accidents involving, Bristow Helicopters (Lagos); Dana Air (Port Harcourt); Delta Airlines (Lagos); Nestoil Gulstream Aircraft (Abuja); Diamond Aircraft owned by International Aviation College (Ilorin); and Cesnna 208B Caravan aircraft flown by former Taraba State Governor, late Mr. Danbaba Suntai, which crashed in Yola, Adamawa.
The AIB report which focused more on the 2012 crash of Cessna Caravan 208B aircraft owned by the Taraba State Government, indicted Mr. Danbaba Suntai (as Pilot-in-command) for embarking on a suicide flight as he lacked the requisite certification and competence to fly the aircraft.
Olateru said investigations also revealed that Mr. Suntai’s flew an illegal aircraft which was not on the register of the NCAA with the regulatory authority having no knowledge of the maintenance record or history of the aircraft.
The AIB boss said, while Suntai had a Private Pilot Licence (PPL), which qualifies him to fly a smaller Cessna 172 aircraft, he however lacked the relevant training, certification and type-rating to fly the heavier Cessna Caravan 208B aircraft.
The report also faulted Suntai’s decision to fly at night when he was also never trained and certified to fly an aircraft relying on Visual Flight Rules (VFR) into an airport that was not equipped with night landing navigational facilities.
“The pilot (Suntai) was not certified, qualified and not competent to have a command and fly the aircraft,” the AIB report said.
“Investigations also faults the decision of the pilot to operate a VFR flight after sunset. And there was also the issue of inadequate oversight by the NCAA,” the report added. The report advised that the NCAA should ensure all pertinent regulations with regards to the operations of aircraft and certification of all relevant personnel are complied with.
The report however noted that aside the human and regulatory errors, the AIB could not conclusively determine the cause of the accident from the side of the aircraft which had four persons on board, with Suntai being the only casualty of the crash.
“The engine did not display any indications of any pre-impact anomalies or distress that would have precluded normal engine operations,” the AIB said.