Buitenzorg
10th Jun 2003, 04:05
Has a cause ever been published for the November 1996 crash of the ADC B727 near Lagos? I’ve often wondered since the demise of the military government, as there were many question marks surrounding the accident at the time.
In those days I was working in Nigeria, mostly Post Harcourt and the boonies with the odd trip to Lagos for presentations and/or discussions. I’d flown back to PHC frm Lagos on an earlier ADC flight that day, we preferred ADC over the other carriers on the route, as did anyone else I knew... Two guys I knew from our sister company across the road in PHC (wireline vs. seismic) were killed in the accident. When Aero started operating their Dash 8 to the NAF base shortly after, that became our exclusive travel mode between the two cities.
With the clampdown of the then military government on any news reflecting badly on themselves, and the pasting the local press gave the (dis-) organization of the rescue/recovery effort, within a week rumours abounded about the sequence of events, some very believable to anyone familiar with Nigerian aviation. When I left a year and a half later no cause had been published, and frankly nobody seemed to expect that ever to happen. But with Abacha out of the way, elections held and the results respected, a fresh wind appeared to be blowing...
Anybody care to comment?
In those days I was working in Nigeria, mostly Post Harcourt and the boonies with the odd trip to Lagos for presentations and/or discussions. I’d flown back to PHC frm Lagos on an earlier ADC flight that day, we preferred ADC over the other carriers on the route, as did anyone else I knew... Two guys I knew from our sister company across the road in PHC (wireline vs. seismic) were killed in the accident. When Aero started operating their Dash 8 to the NAF base shortly after, that became our exclusive travel mode between the two cities.
With the clampdown of the then military government on any news reflecting badly on themselves, and the pasting the local press gave the (dis-) organization of the rescue/recovery effort, within a week rumours abounded about the sequence of events, some very believable to anyone familiar with Nigerian aviation. When I left a year and a half later no cause had been published, and frankly nobody seemed to expect that ever to happen. But with Abacha out of the way, elections held and the results respected, a fresh wind appeared to be blowing...
Anybody care to comment?