Human Errors - The Major Cause of Plane Crashes : The most common reason for airliner disasters
- 6 years ago
The actual causes of plane crashes will surprise you...
Human errors, dereliction of duty are major causes of plane crashes in Nigeria
Avoidable human errors and dereliction of duty by public officials working in the aviation sector have been major reasons for the loss of hundreds of lives in air crashes in Nigeria, reports by the Aviation Investigation Bureau (AIB) have shown.
The bureau which is saddled with the responsibility of investigating air accidents in the country stated these in its findings, conclusions, and recommendations’ after air crashes that occurred in 2002 and 2005 involving two airlines, Sky Executive Aviation Services (SEAS) and Sosoliso airline.
The reports which can be found on the website of the agency shows that if airport officials, airline operators, officials of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), and the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) had done their jobs diligently, at least 103 lives could have been saved in those two crashes while property, including the two airplanes involved, worth hundreds of billions of naira could also have been saved.
Some of the human errors identified by AIB as causes of the plane crashes include non-lightening of runways and airfields, poorly constructed drainage culverts, inaccurate information by the control tower, lack of proper certification of radio operators and poor supervision of aircraft imported into the country.
Lighting the runway
On Friday, June 8, an aircraft operated by Arik airline left the Port-Harcourt airport for the Nnamdi Azikiwe airport in Abuja. The flight scheduled for 6.30pm arrived Abuja about an hour later. Several minutes after circling round the Abuja airport, the pilot decided he could not land. The lights on the runway were not on so there was poor visibility of the airstrip; also, several calls to the control tower yielded no result.
The Arik air pilot promptly made a detour back to Port-Harcourt. He probably learnt from the mistake made by another pilot seven years earlier.
The Sosoliso disaster
Going by July 20, 2006 report that was submitted to the Minister of Aviation, on Saturday, December 10, 2005, at 2.05pm, Benjamin Adebayo, the pilot of Sosoliso aircraft 5N BFD, contacted the Port-Harcourt airport tower (whom he had been communicating with for over 40mins) for final permission to land the aircraft he flew from Abuja, and which contained 110 people (103 passengers and 7 crew members).
“The controller then cleared the airplane to land on runway 21 but to exercise caution as the runway surface was slightly wet and the pilot acknowledged,” A.I. Ozoka, the Director of Accident Investigation and Prevention Bureau (AIPB), said in the agency’s final report on the reasons for the crash.
The permission given to Mr. Adebayo to land his plane was in spite of the fact that the runway lightening was not on; hence the pilot had a limited view of the airfield.
“The crew continued the descent and went well below the
Human errors, dereliction of duty are major causes of plane crashes in Nigeria
Avoidable human errors and dereliction of duty by public officials working in the aviation sector have been major reasons for the loss of hundreds of lives in air crashes in Nigeria, reports by the Aviation Investigation Bureau (AIB) have shown.
The bureau which is saddled with the responsibility of investigating air accidents in the country stated these in its findings, conclusions, and recommendations’ after air crashes that occurred in 2002 and 2005 involving two airlines, Sky Executive Aviation Services (SEAS) and Sosoliso airline.
The reports which can be found on the website of the agency shows that if airport officials, airline operators, officials of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), and the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) had done their jobs diligently, at least 103 lives could have been saved in those two crashes while property, including the two airplanes involved, worth hundreds of billions of naira could also have been saved.
Some of the human errors identified by AIB as causes of the plane crashes include non-lightening of runways and airfields, poorly constructed drainage culverts, inaccurate information by the control tower, lack of proper certification of radio operators and poor supervision of aircraft imported into the country.
Lighting the runway
On Friday, June 8, an aircraft operated by Arik airline left the Port-Harcourt airport for the Nnamdi Azikiwe airport in Abuja. The flight scheduled for 6.30pm arrived Abuja about an hour later. Several minutes after circling round the Abuja airport, the pilot decided he could not land. The lights on the runway were not on so there was poor visibility of the airstrip; also, several calls to the control tower yielded no result.
The Arik air pilot promptly made a detour back to Port-Harcourt. He probably learnt from the mistake made by another pilot seven years earlier.
The Sosoliso disaster
Going by July 20, 2006 report that was submitted to the Minister of Aviation, on Saturday, December 10, 2005, at 2.05pm, Benjamin Adebayo, the pilot of Sosoliso aircraft 5N BFD, contacted the Port-Harcourt airport tower (whom he had been communicating with for over 40mins) for final permission to land the aircraft he flew from Abuja, and which contained 110 people (103 passengers and 7 crew members).
“The controller then cleared the airplane to land on runway 21 but to exercise caution as the runway surface was slightly wet and the pilot acknowledged,” A.I. Ozoka, the Director of Accident Investigation and Prevention Bureau (AIPB), said in the agency’s final report on the reasons for the crash.
The permission given to Mr. Adebayo to land his plane was in spite of the fact that the runway lightening was not on; hence the pilot had a limited view of the airfield.
“The crew continued the descent and went well below the