plane crash in Lagos Nigeria
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Ciderman - My apologies if i sounded rude
I boew to your superior knowledge. Only passed on what I had heard but obviously no foundation.
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Why should an airport be closed because the president is using the airport?
I consider this to be a strong evidence that the airport lack appropriate security level adequate for such an international facility.
This is weird.
WP
I consider this to be a strong evidence that the airport lack appropriate security level adequate for such an international facility.
This is weird.
WP
Last edited by worldpilot; 7th Jun 2012 at 18:36.
Capt 767
No offence taken. My contact sounded credible because he is an educated man and was embarrassed to say that it was the President's wife not the man himself. He is ashamed that even a head of state can close an airport at will. Hopefully the truth will out and things improve. Sorry one of your countrymen, who by all accounts was professional and well respected had to pay with his life for any African shortcomings.
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The flight taxied and took off into the dusty air outside of Abuja at 2:54 p.m., about 40 minutes later than scheduled. The plane banked and began heading south toward Lagos.
It remains unclear exactly what went wrong, but at 3:42 p.m., pilot Peter Waxton, an American from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, radioed Lagos' control tower and declared an emergency, saying both of the Pratt & Whitney engines that hang just below the plane's tail had failed. The MD-83 lost altitude, still miles from the airfield and surrounded by the sprawl of Lagos, a state home to more than 17.5 million.
It remains unclear exactly what went wrong, but at 3:42 p.m., pilot Peter Waxton, an American from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, radioed Lagos' control tower and declared an emergency, saying both of the Pratt & Whitney engines that hang just below the plane's tail had failed. The MD-83 lost altitude, still miles from the airfield and surrounded by the sprawl of Lagos, a state home to more than 17.5 million.
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If they took off at 2:54, that sounds about right for a flight from Abuja to Lagos.
An article had earlier suggested that the approach at Lagos was delayed because the plane had been flying slower than usual because they had suffered an engine failure earlier in the flight.
That doesn't seem likely with an enroute time of 48/49 minutes
Bold highlights are mine:
Home » News & Reports » News
Dana Flight 992 Tragedy: Pilot First Asked to Land On Longer Runway After First Engine Failed
Posted: June 6, 2012 - 17:35
Crashed MD 83
Captain Peter Waxtan was flying the plane
By SaharaReporters, New York
"Air traffic controllers have told Saharareporters confidentially that the crashed airliner Dana aircraft most likely had one failed engine long before the pilot declared an emergency. Multiple sources confirmed that the pilot had requested to land on Murtala Muhammad Airport’s longer runway 18R before calling air controllers back a few minutes later to report a total emergency.
They believe that second call was most probably when the second engine failed. The aircraft crashed about seven nautical miles from the local airport.
One source further explained that the MD 83 plane was overloaded with passengers and luggage to the extent that when the first engine failed, the pilots urgently reduced speed to enable the flight land safely on the longer and better runway, an action that led the flight to an extra 20 minutes delay before crashing at 3:43p.m. It had been billed to land at 3:21p.m. (Note this is scheduled arrival time for an on time departure)
Our sources stated that the drastic reduction in thrust was the undoing of the pilot, given the heavy pay load. To underscore their point that the operators of the jet knew of its mechanical troubles, one of our sources said the jet conducted a short flight test between the Lagos and Ibadan airport on Saturday, apparently to prove to regulators that the jet was “airworthy”.
Several employees of the Dana airlines have publicly stated that the owners were aware as early as Sunday that the jet had mechanical troubles, as it had struggled on a flight to Calabar, but the operators forced the crew to fly it anyway, obviously with an eye on maximizing profit.
Residents that witnessed the crash at Iju Agege area of Lagos have also told Saharareporters that they watched as the pilot seemed to struggle to give the aircraft a final thrust of flight power before the crash, which killed everyone on board.
But speaking for the first time officially today, Dana Air's Director of Flight Operations, Captain Oscar Wason, suggested that a "bird strike" may have caused the crash.
Appearing on Silver Bird TV in Lagos, he said the management of the grounded airline found remnants of birds in one of the engines of the crashed plane.
According to him, “I don’t know what could have been responsible for the crash, but this morning we found remnants of birds in one of the engines.”
He noted that birds were a problem in Nigeria he has experienced several times. “We have bird strikes and it might have been that a mass of birds went through the engine and caused it to lose power.”
However, he said the investigations must be left to come out with an answer. “We have found the voice recorder and that has to be sent to either the UK or Washington. I am planning to travel out myself so that we can found out what is the real cause of the accident.”
It will take several months, if not years, to arrive at the real cause of the fatal crash of Dana Air 992, as Nigeria typically relies on American investigators to unravel the cause of airline accidents."
An article had earlier suggested that the approach at Lagos was delayed because the plane had been flying slower than usual because they had suffered an engine failure earlier in the flight.
That doesn't seem likely with an enroute time of 48/49 minutes
Bold highlights are mine:
Home » News & Reports » News
Dana Flight 992 Tragedy: Pilot First Asked to Land On Longer Runway After First Engine Failed
Posted: June 6, 2012 - 17:35
Crashed MD 83
Captain Peter Waxtan was flying the plane
By SaharaReporters, New York
"Air traffic controllers have told Saharareporters confidentially that the crashed airliner Dana aircraft most likely had one failed engine long before the pilot declared an emergency. Multiple sources confirmed that the pilot had requested to land on Murtala Muhammad Airport’s longer runway 18R before calling air controllers back a few minutes later to report a total emergency.
They believe that second call was most probably when the second engine failed. The aircraft crashed about seven nautical miles from the local airport.
One source further explained that the MD 83 plane was overloaded with passengers and luggage to the extent that when the first engine failed, the pilots urgently reduced speed to enable the flight land safely on the longer and better runway, an action that led the flight to an extra 20 minutes delay before crashing at 3:43p.m. It had been billed to land at 3:21p.m. (Note this is scheduled arrival time for an on time departure)
Our sources stated that the drastic reduction in thrust was the undoing of the pilot, given the heavy pay load. To underscore their point that the operators of the jet knew of its mechanical troubles, one of our sources said the jet conducted a short flight test between the Lagos and Ibadan airport on Saturday, apparently to prove to regulators that the jet was “airworthy”.
Several employees of the Dana airlines have publicly stated that the owners were aware as early as Sunday that the jet had mechanical troubles, as it had struggled on a flight to Calabar, but the operators forced the crew to fly it anyway, obviously with an eye on maximizing profit.
Residents that witnessed the crash at Iju Agege area of Lagos have also told Saharareporters that they watched as the pilot seemed to struggle to give the aircraft a final thrust of flight power before the crash, which killed everyone on board.
But speaking for the first time officially today, Dana Air's Director of Flight Operations, Captain Oscar Wason, suggested that a "bird strike" may have caused the crash.
Appearing on Silver Bird TV in Lagos, he said the management of the grounded airline found remnants of birds in one of the engines of the crashed plane.
According to him, “I don’t know what could have been responsible for the crash, but this morning we found remnants of birds in one of the engines.”
He noted that birds were a problem in Nigeria he has experienced several times. “We have bird strikes and it might have been that a mass of birds went through the engine and caused it to lose power.”
However, he said the investigations must be left to come out with an answer. “We have found the voice recorder and that has to be sent to either the UK or Washington. I am planning to travel out myself so that we can found out what is the real cause of the accident.”
It will take several months, if not years, to arrive at the real cause of the fatal crash of Dana Air 992, as Nigeria typically relies on American investigators to unravel the cause of airline accidents."
Last edited by ediks; 7th Jun 2012 at 19:16.
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The Nigerians have spent a lot of cash on a data recorder lab (naturally bought from a Canadian company
). So naturally the recorders will be flown out of the country
). So naturally the recorders will be flown out of the country
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Political wives
There's a lot of politics going on in Nigeria at the moment, (in brief, to do with whether the incumbent is entitled to stand for office again, and, if he does, what that will mean for the delicate balance between the Muslim North and the Christian South). One of the weapons being wielded against the President standing again is hostile reporting against the First Lady.
Recently she did cause the whole of the smart part of Lagos (Victoria Island) to come to a standstill by having the military close off a main arterial road while she held a fund-raiser in a swanky hotel. This was leaped upon as an example of Presidential/ first family excess and general contempt for the population at large.
I would hazard a guess that the Nigerian political rumour mill (which, as anyone knows Nigeria will confirm, makes this exalted forum read like a POH) jumped to find a way of blaming the President or his close associates for this accident, and settled upon the story that Mrs Goodluck Jonathan ordered Abuja (or Lagos) airports closed.
The fact that no facts were present in this story would not stop it reaching every corner of the land in a matter of minutes, and subsequently turn up here.
Recently she did cause the whole of the smart part of Lagos (Victoria Island) to come to a standstill by having the military close off a main arterial road while she held a fund-raiser in a swanky hotel. This was leaped upon as an example of Presidential/ first family excess and general contempt for the population at large.
I would hazard a guess that the Nigerian political rumour mill (which, as anyone knows Nigeria will confirm, makes this exalted forum read like a POH) jumped to find a way of blaming the President or his close associates for this accident, and settled upon the story that Mrs Goodluck Jonathan ordered Abuja (or Lagos) airports closed.
The fact that no facts were present in this story would not stop it reaching every corner of the land in a matter of minutes, and subsequently turn up here.
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The vultures are gathering ... already!
CHICAGO (AP) — A man whose wife died when a Nigerian commercial airliner crashed into a crowded neighborhood in that country's largest city filed a lawsuit in the United States on Thursday that blames the accident, at least in part, on U.S. companies that designed, manufactured and sold the ill-fated plane.
An American attorney filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Chicago on behalf of David Chukwunonso Allison, whose wife, Joy Chiedozie Allison, was on the Dana Air MD-83 that went down in the African nation Sunday afternoon. The crash killed 153 people who were on the plane and an undetermined number of people on the ground.
Among those named in the 56-page lawsuit are Chicago-based Boeing Co., which bought the McDonnell-Douglas manufacturer of the plane, and Connecticut-based engine-maker Pratt & Whitney.
Gary Robb, a Kansas City, Mo.-based aviation attorney who filed the lawsuit for David Allison, said reports of engine failure as the plane approached Lagosm point to the companies' culpability.
Nigeria's Aviation Minister Stella Oduah said Wednesday that the flight's captain radioed Lagos as the aircraft approached and declared an emergency, saying both of the MD-83's engines had failed. Minutes later, the plane crashed into several buildings.
"That is always incredibly significant information," Robb said. "Engines do not fail unless something goes dramatically wrong."
Without offering details, the suit claims the Pratt & Whitney "engines used a defective and unreasonably dangerous design."
A Thursday statement from Pratt & Whitney responding to the lawsuit didn't address any specific allegations but said "our thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of all those involved in this incident."
"Pratt & Whitney is cooperating fully with investigating authorities and we are unable to offer any further comment as the investigation is ongoing," the statement said.
A spokesman for Boeing did not return several messages seeking comment Thursday.
Joy Allison, who lived in Lagos with her husband and 1-year-old daughter, worked for a Federal Express office in her home city, Robb said. The lawsuit seeks damage payments, though an amount will be determined later.
Robb conceded that pinpointing a precise cause of the alleged engine failure would take time. But he said filing the suit now would help ensure he and his own investigators had legal recourse to request the plane's flight voice and data recorders, and other evidence.
Francis Ogboro, an executive who oversees Dana Air, defended the airline Wednesday against growing public criticism, noting that its own chief engineer died on the doomed flight.
The MD-83 had undergone strenuous checks like the others the carrier owns and that he routinely flies, he told journalists.
The chief engineer "certainly would not have allowed that aircraft to take off" if there was a problem, Ogboro said. "No airline crew would go on a suicide mission."
Emergency officials on Wednesday stopped searching for those killed at the crash site in Iju-Ishaga, the Lagos neighborhood about five miles from Lagos' Murtala Muhammed International Airport.
Officials still aren't sure how many people died, and a complete death toll could take weeks. The plane smashed into two apartment buildings, a printing business and a woodshop.
Authorities have collected the flight voice and data recorders from the plane and plan to send them to the U.S. for analysis. The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board also has sent an investigator to assist Nigeria's Accident Investigation Board.
The State Department says nine Americans were among those killed.
An American attorney filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Chicago on behalf of David Chukwunonso Allison, whose wife, Joy Chiedozie Allison, was on the Dana Air MD-83 that went down in the African nation Sunday afternoon. The crash killed 153 people who were on the plane and an undetermined number of people on the ground.
Among those named in the 56-page lawsuit are Chicago-based Boeing Co., which bought the McDonnell-Douglas manufacturer of the plane, and Connecticut-based engine-maker Pratt & Whitney.
Gary Robb, a Kansas City, Mo.-based aviation attorney who filed the lawsuit for David Allison, said reports of engine failure as the plane approached Lagosm point to the companies' culpability.
Nigeria's Aviation Minister Stella Oduah said Wednesday that the flight's captain radioed Lagos as the aircraft approached and declared an emergency, saying both of the MD-83's engines had failed. Minutes later, the plane crashed into several buildings.
"That is always incredibly significant information," Robb said. "Engines do not fail unless something goes dramatically wrong."
Without offering details, the suit claims the Pratt & Whitney "engines used a defective and unreasonably dangerous design."
A Thursday statement from Pratt & Whitney responding to the lawsuit didn't address any specific allegations but said "our thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of all those involved in this incident."
"Pratt & Whitney is cooperating fully with investigating authorities and we are unable to offer any further comment as the investigation is ongoing," the statement said.
A spokesman for Boeing did not return several messages seeking comment Thursday.
Joy Allison, who lived in Lagos with her husband and 1-year-old daughter, worked for a Federal Express office in her home city, Robb said. The lawsuit seeks damage payments, though an amount will be determined later.
Robb conceded that pinpointing a precise cause of the alleged engine failure would take time. But he said filing the suit now would help ensure he and his own investigators had legal recourse to request the plane's flight voice and data recorders, and other evidence.
Francis Ogboro, an executive who oversees Dana Air, defended the airline Wednesday against growing public criticism, noting that its own chief engineer died on the doomed flight.
The MD-83 had undergone strenuous checks like the others the carrier owns and that he routinely flies, he told journalists.
The chief engineer "certainly would not have allowed that aircraft to take off" if there was a problem, Ogboro said. "No airline crew would go on a suicide mission."
Emergency officials on Wednesday stopped searching for those killed at the crash site in Iju-Ishaga, the Lagos neighborhood about five miles from Lagos' Murtala Muhammed International Airport.
Officials still aren't sure how many people died, and a complete death toll could take weeks. The plane smashed into two apartment buildings, a printing business and a woodshop.
Authorities have collected the flight voice and data recorders from the plane and plan to send them to the U.S. for analysis. The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board also has sent an investigator to assist Nigeria's Accident Investigation Board.
The State Department says nine Americans were among those killed.
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the engines used on this aircraft type are wonderful, I think pratt and whitney is my first choice in jet engines.
I would rather have a pratt and whitney engine than an CFM 56 or the like
The aircraft/airframe is a proven design and has my great respect.
I would sue the airline before pratt and whitney or boeing...but I have no idea what the tort laws are like in the aviation third world.
I would rather have a pratt and whitney engine than an CFM 56 or the like
The aircraft/airframe is a proven design and has my great respect.
I would sue the airline before pratt and whitney or boeing...but I have no idea what the tort laws are like in the aviation third world.
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Lawsuit
The person that is suing should be brought up on charges in Nigeria , ie 409 chapter. There
is so much fraud going on, it is terrible. May the crew ,pax, rest in peace. And may the lawyer and the person filing the suit go H....l. Such a shameful action!
is so much fraud going on, it is terrible. May the crew ,pax, rest in peace. And may the lawyer and the person filing the suit go H....l. Such a shameful action!
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Airport Closure
The airspace was closed at the instance ATC lost contact with the aircraft. All the flights on approach were asked to help sight the aircraft. Once a flight reported sighting the aircraft, the airspace was opened back. That did not take more than 15 minutes. I can confirm this as I was on ground at DNMM.
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Badly-timed (or well-timed, depending on your point of view) film release
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As an aside to all this rumour and what ifs to do with the crash, the DC9 was the 2nd aircraft in the US to be certified without a flight engineer, the first being a Braniff BAC1-11 in March 1965 followed in may by Mohawk BAC 1-11 and then a DL DC9 in December 1965
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I would sue the airline before pratt and whitney or boeing...but I have no idea what the tort laws are like in the aviation third world.
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The Dana flight crew’s final radio broadcasts included “Mayday. Losing two engines” and “Throttle not responding. Not responding,” Demuren said in the interview, emphasizing he was speaking from memory.
The pilot didn’t mention hitting birds, which has caused simultaneous loss of power in two engines in other incidents, or any other reason for the failures, he said.
The jet took on what Demuren characterized as a routine fuel load before departing Abuja, the capital. The crew added 12,125 pounds (5,500 kilos) of jet fuel before the fatal flight, he said.
Other aircraft had refueled in Abuja without reports of engine failure, which suggests the fuel wasn’t contaminated, he said.
Why Nigeria Plane Lost Power Before Crash Still Mystery - Bloomberg
The pilot didn’t mention hitting birds, which has caused simultaneous loss of power in two engines in other incidents, or any other reason for the failures, he said.
The jet took on what Demuren characterized as a routine fuel load before departing Abuja, the capital. The crew added 12,125 pounds (5,500 kilos) of jet fuel before the fatal flight, he said.
Other aircraft had refueled in Abuja without reports of engine failure, which suggests the fuel wasn’t contaminated, he said.
Why Nigeria Plane Lost Power Before Crash Still Mystery - Bloomberg
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Nothing to do with the third world tort law - you sue the engine and airframe manufacturer to get jurisdiction in the USA court system. In addition, both P & W and Boeing are likely to have deeper pockets than Dana Air. Sucks but there it is.
SM:
They'll probably get around to that if their research indicates that the pockets of that fuel supply company are deep enough. If not, they probably won't bother with the suit.
They'll probably get around to that if their research indicates that the pockets of that fuel supply company are deep enough. If not, they probably won't bother with the suit.