UPDATE: FG blame pilots, airline for Bellview, ADC crashes

Accident Investigation Bureau on Saturday, released reports of the air crashes involving Bellview Airlines, Aviation Development Company, and six other aircraft operators.
The report came over six years after the Bellview and ADC crashes led to the death of 213 people in 2005 and 2006 respectively.
The six other minor crashes captured in the report involved DHL, Aerocontractor, Bristow Helicopters and Tampico Club planes.
In October 22, 2005, Bellview’s Boeing 737 airliner with 117 people on board crashed and caught fire shortly after take-off from Lagos, killing all the people on board. The plane crashed in Lisa Village, Ogun State.
On October 29, 2006, the Sokoto-bound ADC’s Boeing 737-200 plane crash-landed a few minutes after take-off at Abuja airport, killing the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammadu Maccido, and 95 other people. There were only nine survivors out of 105 people on board the plane.
The AIB 68-page report on Bellview crash noted that the investigators could not recover the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder from the wreckage of the Bellview crash.
Consequently, AIB said it could not use conclusive evidence to explain the cause of the accident involving Bellview Flight 210 after an extensive investigation.
The report said the Bellview ill-fated plane was defective and, as such, should not have been released to fly.
The AIB report also blamed the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, then headed by one Mr. Felix Onyeyiri, for not providing adequate safety oversight.
According to the report, the training of the pilot-in-command before taking command of the Boeing 737 aircraft was inadequate.
Also, it stated that the cumulative flight hours of the pilot in the days before the accident showed that excessive workload could have led to fatigue.
However, AIB said the absence of forensic evidence prevented the determination of the captain’s medical condition at the time of the accident.
The report said, “Investigations revealed that the airplane had technical defects. The airplane should not have been dispatched for either the accident flight or earlier flights.
“AIB examined the contents of the technical logbook from the period the airplane came back from the ‘C’ check (maintenance). The examination revealed multiple defects on the airplane that were not properly attended to. The technical logbook did not provide information concerning the effectiveness of each action taken against the associated defects.”
The report also said maintenance engineers decided that the aircraft could be released for operation with the fault.
“There were some differences in the simulator report submitted by the co-pilot to NCAA compared with the one obtained directly from the institution. Records to determine the first officer’s actual crew flight, duty and rest times were not available,” it stated.
The AIB’s 97-page report on ADC said pilot error and lack of airline policy on how to operate a flight during adverse weather condition “were causal and contributory factors that led to the crash.”
The report said, “Causal factors: The pilot’s decision to take-off in known adverse weather conditions and failure to execute the proper wind shear recovery procedure resulted in operating the aircraft outside the safe flight regime, causing the aircraft to stall very close to the ground from which recovery was not possible.
“Contributory factors: Inability of the flight crew to apply wind shear recovery procedures and the use of inappropriate equipment for wind shear recovery procedure during simulator recurrrecncy.
“The coordination of responsibilities between the pilot-flying and pilot not flying during their encounter with adverse weather situation was inconsistent with Standard Operating Procedures for the duties of the pilot-flying and pilot not  flying resulting in the inadequate control of the aircraft.
The AIB report which gave the details of the last hours and minutes of the flight said ill-fated ADC aircraft took off from Calabar on Sunday morning of October 29 and landed in Lagos.
It then proceeded to Abuja where it landed at 1020hrs.
According to the report, there was adverse weather at and around Abuja airport at the time the aircraft departed for Sokoto with 105 persons on board comprising two cockpit crew, three cabin crew and 100 passengers.
It said soon after the aircraft was airborne, several warning signals/sounds of “Wind shear” were recorded by the Cockpit Voice Recorder.
In addition, the CVR recorded several “terrain, terrain….pull up, pull up” sounds from the Ground Proximity Warning System as the aircraft was losing altitude.
In the process of recovery, the aircraft was operated outside the ‘safe flight envelope,’ which resulted in a stall close to the ground and crashed, the AIB report said.
The report noted that the decision to take off in known adverse weather condition lied with the captain of the flight.
AIB also pointed out that pilots of two other aircraft, namely Virgin Nigeria and Trade Wings, awaiting take-off clearance from air traffic controllers along with ADC, had decided to wait for the adverse weather to subside.
Five safety recommendations were made by the bureau.
“NCAA should ensure that same instructor does not conduct any training and at the same time be the check airman; NCAA should increase the monitoring of the quality and content of flight crew trainings and NCAA should ensure that the Nigerian Meteorological Agency expedites actions on the completion of the on going installation of Low Level Windshear Alert Systems at all airports to enhance the quality of weather information obtained,” it stated.