another Lagos incident

[readywhenreaching]

there may have been an incident involving a Bellview 737-200 and an Afri Jet MD83 at Lagos... happened wednesday morning.

http://www.jacdec.de/news/news.htm

anyone who can shed a little more light into this ?

[Dagger Dirk]

Bellview plane runs into ditch… To avoid collision with Afrijet aircraft
By UCHE USIM
Thursday, October 5, 2006
A Bellview B737-200 aircraft with registration number F-GHXK heading to Abuja got stuck in the grassfield on the taxiway at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos.
The incident, occurred in the early hours of Wednesday, Daily Sun learnt, when the Bellview pilot tried to aviod an MD 83 aircraft that parked on the taxiway. The plane ended up in a ditch at the ramp.
According to an eyewitness account, the pilot was trying to get the plane out of the ditch when the landing gear sheared off. He also noted that the pilot wanted to make a 360 degrees turning to avoid colliding with the Afrijet plane, which made it to skid off the taxiway in the first instance.
Confirming the incident, the Director General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Dr Harold Demuren said the incident was being investigated, adding that appropriate sanctions would be meted out to the pilot if found culpable.
He noted that there were passengers on board when the incident occurred but added that there was no casualty.
“If we discover that the pilot performed unprofessionally, he’ll be sanctioned. The aircraft nosewheel (front tyre) got stuck in the bush. He was trying to turn around the Afrijet airplane and the nosewheel gave up and the aircraft went into the bush.”
The Corporate Affairs Manager of Afrijet Airlines, Mr Segun Soroye said the aircraft did not touch the company’s MD83 that was parked on the taxiway, adding that the incident was unfortunate.
Also commenting on the development, the Public Relations Manager of Bellview Airlines, Mr Habib Mohammed said the aircraft did not touch the Afrijet plane, stressing that the Bellview pilot was trying his best to dodge the Afrijet’s.
.
Plane collision averted in Lagos
By Gboyega Adeoye - 05.10.2006
A Boeing 737-200 aircraft belonging to Bellview Airline nearly collided with another passenger aircraft, a DC-9, owned by Afrijet airline on the runway of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) in Lagos with the former losing its landing gear.
The Abuja-bound Bellview aircraft almost collided with the other one belonging to Afrijet as it was taxiing for the morning flight to Abuja Wednesday morning. The pilot of the Bellview aircraft was said to have tried to avoid a collision only for the aircraft to veer off the runway.
Eyewitnesses stated that the Bellview aircraft, on being cleared for take off, encountered the Afrijet aircraft which was parked close to the runway. The pilot, it was learnt, thought he could manoeuvre, only to realise too late that the space available could not accommodate the jet.
It was gathered that the swift manoeuvering of the pilot finally landed the aircraft on the grassy portion beside the runway, causing the Boeing 737 aircraft to lose its landing gear which went deep into the mud.
Corporate Affairs Manager of Bellview Airline, Abib Mohammed, confirmed the incident but said it was not a serious matter. The nation’s aviation regulatory body, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), said through its Director General, Dr. Harold Demuren, that investigation was currently going on to get to the root of the matter.
He said that NCAA had been duly briefed and that Bellview management was at liberty to take any decision it liked regarding the pilot. Segun Soroye, the Corporate Affairs Manager of Afrijet, said no damage was done to the parked aircraft and that it had been operating since morning.
All passengers on board the Bellview flight were said to have disembarked to join another flight.

[Flying Mech]

Only in Africa!
Nothing would suprise me or sound unbelievable to me any more after spending 18 months flying around it. I am just curious was it the stupidity of the Afrijet pilots in parking on a taxiway or the 1 man band ATC system in allowing him to park there & then give clearence to another A/C to use it. Then the guy in the 737 when he saw the A/C tried to drive around it via the grass,got stuck, then opened the taps far enough to produce enough thrust to shear the Nose Leg off. You would presume all these fools went to the same zero standard training school which prints certificates & licences for the right fee of course. Still I suppose this is Nigeria.....:hmm:

[vagabond 47]

Bellview plane runs into ditch… To avoid collision with Afrijet aircraft
By UCHE USIM
Thursday, October 5, 2006
A Bellview B737-200 aircraft with registration number F-GHXK heading to Abuja got stuck in the grassfield on the taxiway at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos.

“If we discover that the pilot performed unprofessionally, he’ll be sanctioned. The aircraft nosewheel (front tyre) got stuck in the bush. He was trying to turn around the Afrijet airplane and the nosewheel gave up and the aircraft went into the bush.”


Dont you just love africa?...Ive been out of it tooo long and need that touch of the ridicilous,just the Europe enema one needs from time to time

[Lexif]

Then the guy in the 737 when he saw the A/C tried to drive around it via the grass,got stuck, then opened the taps far enough to produce enough thrust to shear the Nose Leg off.

No, he didn't try to drive around it...

He also noted that the pilot wanted to make a 360 degrees turning to avoid colliding with the Afrijet plane, which made it to skid off the taxiway in the first instance.

...he wanted to make a 360° turn to avoid it. :8 I wonder how that would have worked out! :}

[Revnetwork]

Flying Mech,
Seeing as the aircraft is French registered, and there are no functioning training schools in Nigeria, I suspect the pilots you call fools hold JAR Licences and therefore conform to JAR regs as regards FCL.
Next time there's an overrun or someone skids off the tarmac in winter in Dublin, I suppose the pilots will be fools as well!!
The article is very badly written and you call people "fools" based on it.:=

[Shrike200]

Sounds like ops normal for Africa actually.

[Dan Air 87]

Even doing a routine thing such as taxying in LOS is difficult. You have to not only avoid parked aircraft but wandering civilians who have no right to be anywhere near airside (so much for security). Then if all of that isn't too much to bear there are the cargo aircraft coming from that part of the terminal.

I have seen the way that the a/c are parked there and sometimes it defies belief. On my last trip a month back I was with Aero Contractors on their DHC8 and we were happily taxying towards the runway and we had to pick our way along the taxyway to avoid a parked 727.

Perhaps its cheaper for an a/c to be parked on a taxyway than on the apron??

[chuks]

Many moons ago the government put out a contract to build the new domestic terminal at Lagos Airport (Murtala Muhammed, DNMM). Following that the action became confused. The winner became the loser and the new winner didn't seem to have the actual resources to build much of anything so that (correct me if I am wrong in this) the former domestic ramp is still blocked off, covered in little piles of dirt that have been there so long now they have bushes growing on them and there are medium-size jet aircraft that just park where they feel like it, such as on the active taxiway.

As if that were not enough, the eastern link for Runway 18 Left was not rated for the size of aircraft that use it, so that it develops the most amazing damage; the pavement sinks and swells in a way I have never seen anywhere else. This often lends a certain Paris-Dakar air to what should be the boring act of taxying a large aircraft.

Add to that the lack of much in the way of markings, signage and lighting, plus lots of tall lighting masts dotting the overcrowded ramp and you have a real obstacle course.

These guys you are slagging off were probably just trying to operate to local standards and got it badly wrong. Come try it yourself and see how you get on. 'Not very well' would be my guess!

[MD11Engineer]

Flying Mech,
Seeing as the aircraft is French registered, and there are no functioning training schools in Nigeria, I suspect the pilots you call fools hold JAR Licences and therefore conform to JAR regs as regards FCL.
Next time there's an overrun or someone skids off the tarmac in winter in Dublin, I suppose the pilots will be fools as well!!
The article is very badly written and you call people "fools" based on it.:=

It is one thing for the pilot to get stuck in the mud, this can happen to anybody...
The unforgivable sin was for him to push the throttles forward instead of calling MX to dig the wheel out.

Jan, LAME by profession

[fl380]

Only in Africa!
Nothing would suprise me or sound unbelievable to me any more after spending 18 months flying around it. I am just curious was it the stupidity of the Afrijet pilots in parking on a taxiway or the 1 man band ATC system in allowing him to park there & then give clearence to another A/C to use it. Then the guy in the 737 when he saw the A/C tried to drive around it via the grass,got stuck, then opened the taps far enough to produce enough thrust to shear the Nose Leg off. You would presume all these fools went to the same zero standard training school which prints certificates & licences for the right fee of course. Still I suppose this is Nigeria.....:hmm:
YES! I was aslo flying there for almost 2 yrs, domestic flt from the domestic apron! Crasy! :\ We had to start the engines and than the pax would run to the plane....Every start was a crasy competition with other domestic jets and the run to the destination...crossing the levels, lies about the DME distances and many stupied things that can happen only in Africa! Lagos is a hell of a mass! What will be next? And pilots are realy printing the ATPL licenses with various endorsements, and finaly they are getting national licences in European country...Y.... Today they are there but in new role as captains!
What`s nex?

[F4F]

Lagos Lagos, guess one could quickly assemble enough material to write a nice and thick book, when operating in/outta there!
One thing for sure, the stink of the place will never be forgotten... open the first door or window... welcome...
I remember that while power outage were the norm, we once had the crew of an Alitalia DC-10 (or MD-11, dont' remember that detail) relaying all tower clearances as the R/T output was insufficient to reach other aircraft! (and thank you guys!).
Also vividly remember breaking clouds on about 10NM finals 19R and having a no xponder unannounced 707 visually 3NM in front going for the same runway!
Poor weather (talk about a persistent haze/smog combination, interesting TS or squalls at other times), poor reliability on navaids, poor controllers (the situation got worse when radar worked, the pour souls having obviously little idea as how to manage traffic using it), slippery runways and taxiways and a desastrous terminal :hmm:

Well, as my last visit dates to about 9 years ago, things might have improved some, no?