Instant judgement by the Aviation Minister?
CNN: Crash pilot 'ignored storm advice'
ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) -- The pilot of a Nigerian airliner that crashed a day earlier did not heed air traffic controllers' advice to wait for stormy weather to clear before taking off, the minister of aviation said Monday. The pilot was among 96 people killed in the crash; nine people survived.
While Aviation Minister Babalola Borishade did not directly blame pilot error in the third mass-casualty jet crash to hit this West African nation in less than a year, he said officials would move to try to curb pilots' power to ignore advice from the control tower......
Borishade said all of ADC's planes were grounded indefinitely and its flying license was suspended.......
"The pilot of the unfortunate accident refused to take advantage of the weather advice and the opinion of the (control) tower to exercise patience and allow the weather to clear for a safe take off," Borishade said at a news conference. "The discretionary power of the air crew to override advice from the tower has been largely responsible for unfortunate consequences in the history of air mishaps in this country," Borishade said. "The federal government has directed the National Civil Aviation Authority to look into this and prepare appropriate guidelines to stop this reckless abuse of crew discretionary power ... to ensure safety."
The minister said conditions at the time included rain, gusty winds, thunder and lightning, and that controllers thought the weather would worsen. "The air traffic controller re-emphasized the deteriorating weather condition and gave wind checks, which they (crew) acknowledged," he said.
Rowland Iyayi, head of the National Air Space Management Agency, said a Virgin Airlines flight that had been on the runway at about the same time as the ADC flight did not take off because of strong winds......