The Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) Nigeria has released the preliminary reports on serious incidents involving three aircraft owned and operated by Air Peace Limited.
The bureau stated that the preliminary reports are not the final reports as they 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.
The investigations on these serious incidents are still ongoing and final reports on these occurrences will be released at the conclusion of these investigations.
The reports released by AIB included the serious incident involving Air Peace Limited B737-300 aircraft with nationality and registration marks 5N-BUK at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos on May 15, 2019.
A visit to the aircraft and subsequent evaluation revealed evidence of significant damage to the aircraft structure and its No. 2 engine. The aircraft had been declared unserviceable and grounded by the operator since the date of the incident, for further maintenance evaluation.
AIB also released the report on the serious incident involving the airline’s B737-500 aircraft with nationality and registration marks 5N-BRN at Port Harcourt International Airport, Port Harcourt on June 22, 2019.
Findings showed that the aircraft had a valid certificate of airworthiness.
Also released is the report on the serious incident involving Air Peace Limited B737-300 aircraft with nationality and registration marks 5N-BQO at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos on July 23, 2019.
AIB advised that NCAA should ensure that all airline operators review their SOPs to include procedure for isolating power to the cockpit voice recorder to preserve its contents from being overwritten, in the event of any reportable occurrence.
The Bureau also insisted that Air Peace should ensure that flight crew adhere to strict compliance with Company Operations Manual (OM Part A) Chapter 11 (11.4.3) on Preservation of Recordings while also ensuring that best handling technique is emphasized during crew training on single channel auto-pilot operation.
