The Dana Air plane crash that killed 159 people on the third day of June 2012 was a man-made massacre that could have been avoided, Nigeria’s Accident Investigation Bureau, AIB, said in a final report on Monday.
At a press conference packed with about 100 journalists, AIB Commissioner, Mr. Akin Olateru, read the AIB report.
The report detailed how after Dana Air first engine failed 17 minutes into the flight, the American pilot could have landed in a nearby airport. But he did not.
Rather, he risked his own life and that of the 152 other passengers and crew for nearly 40 minutes until the aircraft could no longer reach the runway of the Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos.
“Engine number 1 lost power seventeen minutes into the flight, and thereafter on final approach, Engine number 2 lost power and failed to respond to throttle movement on demand for increased power to sustain the aircraft in its flight configuration,” Engineer Olateru said.
Then followed series of actions and inactions that caused so many lives.
“The inappropriate omission of the use of the Checklist, and the crew’s inability to appreciate the severity of the power-related problem, and their subsequent failure to land at the nearest suitable airfield” could be blamed for the crash, he said, reading a report that was approved by virtually all stakeholders in the industry.
There was also, as he put it, “lack of situation awareness, inappropriate decision making, and poor airmanship”. All these revelations are likely to anger again families who argued with little evidence back then that the airline failed to put the safety of their loved ones first.
AIB had published four interim reports since the tragedy occurred. On Monday, along with three other accidents, it released the final reports.
The Dana Air tragedy occurred on a Sunday. Many people who had gone to Abuja, the Nigerian capital, for the weekend were just coming back that bright afternoon of third June 2012.
Visibility was perfect. Nigeria had spent several years without any major plane crash. Hopes were rising and many people from other African countries were travelling to Lagos to learn from Africa’s most populous nation.
And then, 17 minutes into the Dana flight, the first engine failed. Abuja-Lagos is roughly a 55 or 60 minutes flight. The pilot could have turned back and could have landed in a nearby airfield, the report suggested.
But, he made the decision to fly with one engine. However, the second engine also failed some minutes before reaching the Lagos airport.
With both engines gone, it was a tragedy that could no longer be avoided. At least 153 passengers and crew perished as well as six people on the ground who were going about their daily lives at Iju-Ishaga area where the flying machine crumbled.
AIB said it made eight recommendations following the crash and Dana Air said in a statement on Monday that it had complied with them since 2013.
The airline was suspended in 2012 following the accident and the loss of so many lives, but was allowed to begin operations anew, even though some issues were still pending in court, and some family members were yet to bury their loved ones.
In a country where life means nothing, reports like these may not likely raise the protests and anger they deserve.
AIB released three other damning reports of three other air accidents that Look Naija would discuss in subsequent articles.
