The helicopter, a Bell 427, crashed in Landir village in Kabong, Jos South Local Government Area, Plateau State on March 14, 2012, killing all four people on board.
A report released by the Nigerian Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) on Wednesday revealed how unqualified pilots and an engineer caused a helicopter carrying the late Deputy Inspector General of Police, John Haruna, to crash in 2012, killing him and three others on board.
The helicopter, a Bell 427, crashed in Landir village in Kabong, Jos South Local Government Area, Plateau State on March 14, 2012, killing all four people on board. The fatal crash came barely one week after Mr. Haruna was promoted to his new rank.
Details of the AIB’s report were presented by AIB Commissioner Akin Olateru at the bureau’s headquarters at Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos.
Mr. Olateru explained that the pilot’s medical certificate and simulator recurrency had expired at the time of the crash.
The helicopter was operated by the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) and was registered under the private category with the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).
The police identified the pilot as the Assistant Commissioner of Police, Garba Yelwa, and the co-pilot as Alexander Pwol-ja. Sergeant Sonatian Shirunam, Mr. Haruna’s orderly, was the fourth man on board the flight.
According to the AIB, the co-pilot was not equally type-rated on the helicopter brand, meaning that he did not have the proper certification to pilot the helicopter. This amounts to a serious violation of safety rules in the global aviation industry, the AIB explained.
Both pilots were therefore unqualified to fly the helicopter at the time of the crash.
Additionally, the engineer that released the helicopter prior to the flight was similarly unqualified.
The report revealed that the engineer did not have the necessary type-training and type-rating for the aircraft type he released to embark on the journey.
Mr. Olateru, however, said that the crash was not caused solely by the violations of safety rules by the aforementioned pilots and engineer.
He explained that the investigation discovered a series of discrepancies and non-compliance with the Nigerian Civil Aviation Regulations by the operator of the helicopter, the Nigeria Police Force.
According to Mr. Olateru, the AIB was notified of the crash by the NCAA at about 11:55 a.m. on the day of the crash. The bureau immediately dispatched investigators to the crash site the same day.
“On Tuesday, the 13th of March, 2012, the flight originated from Abuja Airport to Jos Prison Service football field as a ferry flight. The purpose of the flight was to convey the Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Operations from Jos to Abuja. The aircraft had initial contact with Jos Control Tower at 1350 hours en-route and reported its ETA to be 1400 hours.
“The following day, the 14th of March, 2012, at 0930 hours, a police fuel bowser that had arrived in Jos from Abuja the previous day fueled the aircraft which had been parked overnight at the Jos Prison football field. At 0958 hours, two-way communication was established between the helicopter and the Air Traffic Controllers (ATC).
“At about 1150 hours, the helicopter lifted up with four persons on board, including the DIG. The Control Tower was notified at about 1155 hours of the helicopter’s crash at Landir village, Kabong area near Jos metropolis, and that all four persons on board were fatally injured. The accident occurred in daylight at a coordinate of N09°55.229, E008°51.853.”
The AIB, in its safety recommendations, therefore called on the Nigeria Police Force to provide the proper funding, a conducive working environment, and to develop and implement a robust training program for its technical and operational personnel with adequate supervision and approved equipment to enhance safety.
It also recommended that the NCAA should ensure that the NPF Air Wing complies with its Aircraft Maintenance Organisation (AMO) requirements while the NCAA and Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) should launch an independent inquiry into aviation fuel quality in the country.
“The resulting report should focus on the vulnerability and risk of each step in the distribution process. This should yield firmer regulatory oversight mechanism that ensures international quality of aviation fuels used in Nigeria,” Mr. Olateru said.
Apart from the police crash report, the AIB also released its report on the incident involving a Tampico TB 9 aircraft belonging to the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria, in 2008 and the ground collision incident involving Air Peace Airlines at the apron of the General Aviation Terminal of Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, on April 20, 2017.
Mr. Olateru said that the crash of the Tampico TB 9 aircraft, operated by NCAT with the registration 5N-CBC, occurred at Zaria aerodrome, Kaduna State on October 6, 2008.
According to the report, the student pilot was unable to maintain directional control of the aircraft after it touched down, causing it to crash.
The report also attributed the crash to the student pilot’s loss of concentration while retracting the flap and trimming the aircraft during the landing roll preparatory to the next take-off.
It also attributed fatigue of the student to the crash, saying that the student had already done six landings with the instructor and four solo landings the same day.
The AIB, in its safety recommendations, said that BEA (Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses pour la sécurité de l’aviation civile) should propose to the aircraft manufacturer, SOCATA of France, to incorporate a “gate detent” position in the flap control knob assembly.
The report said that this would make proper flap selections easier during aircraft operations, stressing that the NCAA should ensure that flying instructors supervising students on solo flight must at all times be at the control tower to monitor the progress of the flight.
It also recommended that NCAT should procure equipment and train relevant personnel to conduct toxicological examinations in its medical facility.
“On final approach, he had good altitude and airspeed control. The aircraft touched down around the first intersection about 600m from the runway 24 threshold, skidded, and veered off the center line of the runway to the right,” Mr. Olateru said.
The AIB also made four safety recommendations on the ground collision incident involving two Air Peace aircraft at the apron wing of the Lagos airport.
The report said that the decision of the captain to reposition the aircraft without requesting for a push-back and maneuvering the aircraft without the aid of marshallers were some of the factors responsible for the crash.
The AIB recommended to the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) to engage more marshallers and to ensure adequate training and retraining of such personnel, adding that the agency should also establish a quasi-apron control room at the domestic terminal.
The report also recommended that the FAAN should provide marshallers and other personnel with sufficient protective equipment, adding that NCAA should also ensure that proper regulatory oversight was carried out on operators using the General Aviation Terminal (GAT).
