AIB releases preliminary report on police helicopter crash, other incidents

The Accident Investigation Bureau, Nigeria (AIB-N) has released a preliminary report on an accident involving a Bell 429 Helicopter owned and operated by Nigeria Police Air Wing with Nationality and Registration marks 5N-MDA, which occurred at the Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Airport, Bauchi, Nigeria on 26th January 2022.

In the report, the AIB-N said the police helicopter departed the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, (NAIA), Abuja to Maiduguri on a Visual Flight Rules (VFR) flight plan with a planned technical stop at Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Airport, Bauchi, and crashed at 19:47hrs in Instrument Meteorological Conditions (IMC).

Before it crashed, the AIB-N said the crew noticed a discomfort with the engine onboard and made several attempts to contact control towers in Jos, Bauchi, and Abuja but failed.

Details of the report are published on the official website of the Bureau (www.aib.gov.ng).

The second preliminary report is on the Serious Incident involving the United Nigeria Airlines Embraer 145LR aircraft with nationality and registration marks 5N-BWW, which was climbing out of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, Nigeria when a serious incident occurred at about 4,000 feet on 17th November 2021.

The third preliminary report is on the Serious Incident involving Max Air Boeing 737-300 aircraft, which was parked at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja with nationality and registration marks 5N-DAB and was involved in an on-ground collision with Skyway Aviation Handling Co. Plc (SAHCO) lavatory service truck with fleet number 9/5 on 21st November 2021.

And the fourth report is also a serious incident involving a Boeing 737-300 aircraft owned and operated by Air Peace Limited with nationality and registration marks 5N-BUQ, which occurred after take-off from Sam Mbakwe Airport, Owerri, Nigeria en route to Lagos on 22nd November, 202.

All the reports are published on the Bureau’s official website (www.aib.gov.ng).

The Bureau explained that “Preliminary reports are not the final reports as they only contain details of the initial facts, discussions, and findings surrounding the occurrences; which include information gathered from witness statements, flight recorders, Health and Usage Monitoring System (HUMS) Data, Flight Data Monitoring (FDM) data, and preliminary inspection of the accident sites and the wreckages.

“Therefore, investigations on these serious incidents and accidents are still ongoing and final reports will be released at the conclusions of the respective investigations.”