(Excerps of a write up in oct 2006 in the aftermath of the ADC 053 accident in Abuja)
Nigeria": Search and rescue; emergency response.
To show how intransigent we are, we have consistently paid lip service to SAR (search and rescue). Our emergency response system has been put through its paces by the plethora of accidents/incidents and found severely wanting. Most of the rescue is usually carried out by the good hearted Nigerian villagers. Last May, the then minister claims to embark on a campaign to promote public awareness on safety search and rescue. We are still searching for the AIPB search and rescue website.
Evidence suggests that most of the fatalities on ADC 053 resulted from the fire preceding the crash. Had the emergency response been swift, more lives would have been saved.
A study conducted by the American National transportation safety board (NTSB) showed that out of the total number of fatalities recorded during aircraft crashes only 27% die on impact, 73% die because of late response time and poor rescue co-ordination.
The airplane’s aluminum skin may burn through in one minute, and in another two to three minutes the inside temperature reaches a lethal 1,800 F.
The total elapsed time from beginning of a fuel fire until conditions become fatal is three to four minutes. Therefore, airport fire fighting personnel must arrive at the accident within three minutes if they are to have any chance of rescuing and saving passengers and crew.
A case in point is the Beechcraft 200 crash at Kaduna airport on 28th November 2005. This anomaly is not localised to Nigeria alone. A few instances where late and poor response has resulted in more fatalities abound. For example, on 12th August 1985, 520 people died when a Boeing 747 crashed in Japan because rescuers did not get to the scene of the crash till daylight; and the 20th January 1992 , Airbus A-320 crash near Strasbourg where 88 people died and only 8 survived: "At the scene was total chaos. No one knew exactly where or how they could help".
A classic case of an efficient system was the Air France 358 Airbus A340 accident on August 2nd, 2005. The aircraft over ran the runway at Pearson international airport in Toronto during a thunderstorm. The aircraft was completely destroyed by the ensuing fire, but all the 309 passengers and crew survived. A scenario that is remarkably similar to the Sosoliso accident of 10th December 2005 in Port Harcourt Nigeria with very different outcomes!
( full script can be found at http://nigeriaaviationsafety.org/WHEN_SAFETY_COMES_LAST.html )
Last edited by DRPAM007; 19th Mar 2008 at 11:49.