The Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB) has released the preliminary report of a recent serious incident involving a Boeing 737-400 belonging to Max Air, one of Nigeria’s domestic carriers.
The Director General and Chief Executive Officer of the Bureau, Engr. Akin Olateru, said the incident occurred as the aircraft during a flight of the aircraft from Yola Airport to Abuja Airport.
“I also want to seize this opportunity to release the preliminary report on the serious incident involving a Boeing 737-400 aircraft operated by Max Air Limited with Nationality and registration marks 5N-MBD, which occurred between take off at Yola, Airport Adamawa State and on landing at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja Nigeria on 7 May 2023,” he stated while announcing commencement of investigation into a recent boat mishap.
He said the initial findings reveal that “The flight crew were licensed and qualified to conduct the flight. The aircraft had a valid Certificate of Airworthiness,” while a number of gaps were observed in the operation of the flight.
The Bureau made immediate recommendations including that “Max Air Limited Quality Assurance should ensure maintenance activities are supervised and monitored in accordance with Maintenance Control Manual.” It said the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) should “Conduct regular safety management system (SMS) assessments to evaluate the capability of Max Air limited to effectively manage safety.”
NSIB also said NCAA should ensure that “the PMI and POI of Max Air Limited increase surveillance and oversight to ensure maintenance and flight operations are carried out in accordance with NCAA Technical Guidance Material (TGM) Volume IV (Airworthiness Inspector’s Handbook) Chapter 23 (Continuing Surveillance) and TGM Volume III Flight Operations Inspector’s Handbook Chapter 30 (Continuing Surveillance).”
According to NSIB, “Max Air Limited should ensure that flight crew display good situational awareness and airmanship at all times during conduct of flight operations in accordance with Max Air ops manual.”
“NCAA should ensure FAAN/NAMA provide uninterrupted power supply in order to avoid vulnerability of their operational equipment,” NSIB recommended, among others, noting that further investigations would continue on the incident.
Formerly in charge of investigating air accidents, the Bureau, formerly known as the Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) had its scope of investigations expanded to include rail, water and other modes of transport.
The NSIB is an autonomous multimodal investigation agency charged with the mandate to investigate air, rail, marine and other modes of transportation accidents and serious incidents in Nigeria with the aim of identifying the probable causes and proffer safety recommendations that can prevent reoccurrences.
According to Engr. Olateru, “In line with enabling law of the federal republic of Nigeria, the Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB) ACT 2022 and the directive of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, NSIB has commenced investigation into the boat mishap that occurred at Kpada community in Pategi Local Government Area of Kwara State, on Monday night 12 June 2023.”
From reports gathered thus far, the boat was said to have conveyed not less than 250 passengers from a village called Egboti in Niger State. Information received also reveal that 106 fatalities have been recorded and the total of 144 passengers have been rescued so far, he added, noting that t”he purpose of accident investigation, however, is not to apportion blame or liability but to prevent future recurrence of similar incidents.”
“In order to carry out this mandate, the Bureau would be carrying out a lot of fact findings through crew and passenger interviews, working with relevant authorities to be able to determine the probable cause(s) of this accident. I will also like to use this medium to reach out to other local, state, federal agencies and other relevant stakeholders to maintain effective cooperation and collaboration so as to ensure transportation safety.”
He expressed the commitment of the Bureau to swift response to accident and serious incident occurrences through its well-equipped Command and Control Centre. “Accident reporting has also been simplified through our Mobile Application, which was introduced to interface with the public and make it easy for them to communicate with NSIB digitally,” Engr. Olateru stated.
The NSIB, hereby, solicit information from the public in form of pictures, video or recording evidences to help assist in conducting a comprehensive investigation. The Bureau can be reached through info@aib.gov.ng and NSIB on its social media platforms, he stated.
