Chinedu Eze
13 November 2009
Lagos — Twinutter aircraft owned by Caverton Helicopters was yesterday said to have been severely damaged when it overshot the runway at the Bonny Terminal in Rivers state. In another incident, two Bristow owned helicopters (Bell 412) were involved in another mishap at the Addax base in Calabar Cross River state.
Eye witness account said the two choppers were involved in the accident when one of them which was about to take off hit the other that was parked at the base, resulting in severe damage, although no life was lost.
It would be recalled that there was another helicopter crash in Calabar about one month ago and an air miss involving a chartered aircraft, Hawker 900XP, with the Governor of Akwa Ibom state, Godwill Akpabio on board and another aircraft owned by Allied Air that was taking off at the Port Harcourt airport less than two weeks ago.
Also few days ago, a passenger on a domestic flight from Abuja to Lagos was allowed by the airport security to board a flight with hand luggage containing dangerous liquid chemicals that nearly set the aircraft on fire.
Observers believe that these incidents may be a warning for worse scenario to come as the country has enjoyed almost three years of free air disaster involving commercial flight, except for the Beechcraft 1900D that disappeared in March 2008 and later was discovered to have crashed in Cross River state.
The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) is currently investigating the cause of the near collision of the two aircraft in Port Harcourt airport and was said to have ordered for the tapes containing discussions between the pilots of the aircraft and that of the air traffic controllers at the Port Harcourt and Calabar airports.
The Authority also suspended the Air Traffic Controller in charge at the airport when the incident happened.
Many in the industry said that it was error from the controllers who gave the two pilots conflicting altitudes to fly in and sighting the Allied Air aircraft. The pilot of the private jet was said to have suddenly descended 500 feet to avoid colliding with the other plane.
The Director-General, NCAA, Dr. Harold Demuren, said a team had been set up to read the tapes containing the discussions between the pilots and the control towers.
According to him, the team consisted of experts in airworthiness, air traffic control services and navigational communication experts.
NCAA is also investigating how aviation security allowed a passenger to board a flight with dangerous chemicals.
According to Demuren that was a lapse on the security operatives at the airport.
"It was lapses on the security that a passengers was allowed to board a flight with liquid substances in the bag into the aircraft and unfortunately it was chemical. It was some lapses to our security. It almost led to fire on landing, but it was contained immediately. We are studying it. How did they pass the security checks undetected? How can a passenger be doing that with all the instructions at the airport? It is very embarrassing to us."
Demuren said that the security department at the airports should be overhauled to ensure that this kind of thing did not happen again.
"We must go back to the drawing board and make sure that we tidy up our security, especially the passenger that is passing through with hand luggage."
The NCAA boss said that there was the need to urgently complete the Total Radar Coverage of Nigeria (TRACON) project which would expose every aircraft in the nation's airspace, noting that when fully completed it would cover the whole nation and it would significantly improve safety of aircraft in the space.
But industry observers accuse the regulatory body, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and the Nigeria Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) of laxity and unable to exercise stringent conditions that would ensure the safety of air travel in the country.
Demuren acknowledged yesterday's incident at Addax base and the incident at Bonny Terminal, describing them as minor incidents.
Meanwhile the Accident Investigation Bureau sent its official to Calabar to investigate the incident.
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