April 26, 2022

The Accident Investigation Bureau, Nigeria (AIB-N), has released four preliminary reports on serious incidents and accident involving aircraft owned and operated by some Nigerian airlines.

The airlines included United Nigeria Airlines Limited, Max Air, Air Peace and the Nigerian Police Air Wing.

The bureau’s General Manager, Public Relations, Mr Tunji Oketunbi, disclosed this in a statement in Lagos, on Tuesday.

Oketumbi explained that the reports were not the final reports as they only contained details of the initial facts, discussions and findings surrounding the occurrences.

He said the reports contained information gathered from witness statements, flight recorders, Health and Usage Monitoring System (HUMS) data, Flight Data Monitoring (FDM), and preliminary inspection of the accident sites and the wreckages.

The general manager said that the preliminary reports included one on the serious incident involving the United Nigeria Airlines Embraer 145LR aircraft with nationality and registration marks 5N-BWW.

According to him, this occurred when it was climbing out of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, Nigeria when a serious incident occurred at about 4,000 feet on Nov. 17, 2021.

He said: “The preliminary report on the serious incident involving Max Air Boeing 737-300 aircraft, was when it was parked at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.

“This is with nationality and registration marks 5N-DAB and involved an on-ground collision with Skyway Aviation Handling Co. Plc (SAHCO) lavatory service truck with fleet number 9/5 on Nov. 21, 2021.

“The preliminary report on serious incident involving a Boeing 737-300 aircraft owned and operated by Air Peace Limited with nationality and registration marks 5N-BUQ, occurred after take-off from Sam Mbakwe Airport, Owerri, Nigeria enroute Lagos on Nov. 22, 2021.

Similarly, “the preliminary report on an accident involving a Bell 429 helicopter owned and operated by Nigeria Police Air Wing with the Nationality and Registration marks 5N-MDA, occurred at the Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Airport, Bauchi, Nigeria on Jan. 26, 2022.”

Oketumbi noted that details of the reports could be found at the bureau’s website (www.aib.gov.ng). (NAN)