AM EDITORIAL: Recent Recurrence Of Aircraft Incidents In Nigeria’s Aviation Industry

Aviation Monitor is not comfortable with the fact that within a seven weeks period of October 24, 2024 to December 11, 2024, four aircraft incidents and one accident have occurred in Nigeria. Three had occurred in December alone as at December 11.

On October 24, 2024, a Sikorsky SK76c helicopter with registration 5N-BQG, operated by Eastwind Aviation, carrying eight individuals (six passengers and two crew members) went down into the Atlantic Ocean near Bonny Finima, off the coast of Calabar, during a routine flight at approximately 11:22 AM local time.

The aircraft was en route from the Port Harcourt Military Base (DNPM) to the Anton Offshore Facility when it lost contact with air traffic controllers around 10:52 AM. Operating under Visual Flight Rules (VFR), the helicopter did not transmit an Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT) signal, prompting authorities to manually plot the accident’s location to expedite search and rescue efforts.

The Vice President of the National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers (NAAPE), Capt Yakubu Dukas died in that crash.

On November 14, 2024, Air Peace attributed the incident that made its Lagos-bound flight make an emergency stop to a bird strike hitting one of the engines of its aeroplanes. Spokesman for the airline, Dr. Ejike Ndiulo in a statement said, “Our Abuja-Lagos 06:30 flight experienced a bird strike before take-off, prompting a ramp return as a safety measure.”

All passengers were disembarked and the airline deployed a replacement aircraft for the affected flight.

On December 5, 2024, MaxAir’s Flight VM1623 with registration Number 5N-BBM made an air return due to an observed abnormality in the engine parameters during ascent, prompting the Captain to initiate an air return to Maiduguri International Airport. The affected engine was shut down, and the aircraft landed safely.

On December 6, 2024, a Flybird AMSL Hawker 900XP aircraft, registration 5N-KAL, experienced an in-flight incident while travelling from the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport, Abuja to Kotoka Airport, Accra.

According to Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB), the aircraft, with four persons on board (three crew members and one passenger), was climbing through flight level 240 en route to flight level 280 when the crew reported an engine indication issue. The aircraft was at a position approximately 25 nautical miles southwest of VOR station VONUK at 17:54 UTC when the crew requested a diversion back to Abuja due to the engine indication. The request was promptly granted, and the aircraft was cleared to descend to flight level 190.

On December 11, 2024, there was a runway excursion involving a Boeing 737-400 (Cargo) aircraft with registration and nationality marks 5N-JRT, operated by Allied Air. The incident occurred at approximately 10:06 AM local time at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.

According to Nigeria Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB), “the aircraft, operating as flight AJK206 from Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos, skidded off the right side of Runway 22 into the grass verge after landing. No fatalities or injuries to the crew or ground personnel were reported. The aircraft sustained significant damage.

Efforts being made by Nigeria’s aviation authorities to improve the system are visible and highly commendable. Of recent, the laudable measures attracted high ratings for the sector internationally.

It is however, important that the improved rating be sustained. The recent rate of incidents may not be “unheard of.” Yet, it is not a safe phenomenon for an industry that has just a few tens of scheduled commercial flights in operation. There is need to give more attention to implementation of recommendations from investigation reports released by NSIB.

Although investigations of the recent incidents and accident are yet to be concluded, we believe that proper economic regulation and safety oversight of airlines can give Nigeria better results than five occurrences in seven weeks.

Beyond NSIB recommendations, we advocate more pro-activeness on industry economic regulation and oversight as part of measures to minimize the emerging rate of aircraft incidents involving Nigerian operators. AM