The Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB) released a preliminary report on Thursday, accusing Max Air of overwriting the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) in the serious incident that took place at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja on May 7, 2023.
The report also said that the airline claimed ignorance of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority’s (NCAA) All Operators Letter (AOL) (NCAA/FSG/AOL/19/03) in respect of continuous overwriting of CVR Information by operators.
The serious incident, which involved a Boeing 737-400 with the registration number: 5N-MBD and 143 passengers onboard, caused fear among the aviation industry players as the airline crash-landed at the airport.
The report also said that the airline’s pilot ignored the passenger alert on seeing a wheel fall off from the aircraft on take-off.
In a bid to prevent a recurrence of such incident, NSIB recommended to NCAA to invoke the relevant sections of Nigeria Civil Aviation Regulations (Nig.CARs) 2015 in accordance with IS 1.3.3 Legal Enforcement Actions to non-compliant operators with the AOL (NCAA/FSG/AOL/19/03) on continuous overwriting of CVR information by airlines.
The NSIB’s report also revealed that the airline entered the wrong tech log of the serial number of the incident aircraft, while the quality control department did not supervise the maintenance action of the brake unit and wheel change on 5N-MBD conducted on May 5, 2023.
Max Air is not the first airline that would be accused of overwriting the CVR in the sector.
No fewer than two other airlines have been accused of such practice in a bid to circumvent investigation.
The preliminary report released by the Director-General of NSIB, Engr. Akin Olateru, the Director-General, said that the aircraft departed Abuja for Yola as NGL1648 at 12:10 pm and arrived at Yola at 13:25pm the same day.
The report said that the aircraft was on the ground at Yola for about 30 minutes before the turnaround for Abuja.
The report stated that after takeoff, the landing gear was left extended for three minutes to allow cooling due to the high temperature on the ground Yola, adding that at 14:08pm, Nigerian Air Force personnel from the Air Force Hangar close to runway 35, reported to Yola Control Tower that an object “appearing like a tyre fell off from the departing NGL1649.”
Besides, the report stated that the flight purser (L1) and another cabin crew (L2) informed the pilot that a passenger in seat row 24 informed them about seeing a wheel fall off from the airplane, but the pilot responded that instruments and landing gear indications were normal.
The report added: “According to the pilot, the landing was normal, but after the airplane started decelerating, he noticed the port side wing was dropping lower than normal. He applied full aileron control to keep the wing from dropping until the lift decayed.
“Thrust reverser and minimal braking were used to stop the aircraft on the runway. At 14:57p.m, Abuja Air Traffic Control (ATC) informed NGL1649 ‘be advised, it appears you have smoke around your aircraft. We called the fire watch room,’ the Aerodrome Rescue and Fire Fighting Services (ARFF), and emergency services were alerted.
“The aircraft came to a stop between Link A5 and A6 about 2900m from the threshold of runway 22. The port wheel assembly was located by personnel of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) about 1000m from the threshold of Runway 35 Yola airport on 08th May 2023. The CVR recording was found to be overwritten.”
