The Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) has released the final report of the accident involving an Embraer 120 ER aircraft marked 5N-BJY belonging to Associated Airlines Ltd.
The aircraft which was conveying the remains of the governor of Ondo state, Dr. Segun Agagu, crashed on October 3, 2013 shortly after taking off from the Murtala Muhammed Airport Terminal 2, and resulted in the death of 16 passengers, while four sustained serious injuries.
Presenting the final report at a press briefing in Lagos yesterday, the Commissioner/Chief Executive of AIB, Mr. Akin Olateru, attributed the cause of the accident to the crew’s decision to continue the take-off despite the abnormal number 2 propeller revolutions per minute (RPM) indication warning as well as poor regulatory oversight.
He also traced it to the low altitude stall as a result of low thrust at start of roll for take-off from number 2 engine caused by an undetermined malfunction of the propeller control unit.
On the contributory factors, the commissioner traced the accident to the aircraft being rotated before attaining V1, the decision to continue the take-off with flap configuration warning and auto-feather warning at low speed, poor professional conduct of the flight crew, inadequate application of crew resource management (CRM) principles and inadequate regulatory oversight.
AIB released four safety recommendations on the crash, which were all directed at the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).
It called on NCAA to enhance the enforcement of the regulations with regard to the implementation of operators approved personnel training programme and intensification of its safety oversight function on the airline to ensure that flight operations are carried out in accordance with approved operations manuals in line with the provisions of Nigeria Civil Aviation Regulations (NCARs).
Others are improved safety oversight on the affected carrier to ensure staff welfare issues and remunerations are settled promptly, as well as ensure that state confidential voluntary reporting system is established and implemented in line with the state safety programme.
AIB also released five other final aircraft accident and incident reports made up of one accident and four serious incidents that between 2009 and 2014.
