AIB-N calls For Retraining Of Azman Crew On Flight AZM 2316

The Accident Investigation Bureau, Nigeria (AIB-N) says it issued an Immediate Safety Recommendation to the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), to ensure Azman Air Services Limited immediately reviews the training of the incident flight crew of 5N-AIS Flight AZM 2316 from Lagos to Port Harcourt.

The investigators said this was in order for the crew to be able to understand and recognise engine failure/malfunctions and its effect(s) at every phase of flight before they are allowed to resume flight duties.

The AIB-N gave this immediate safety recommendation to be carried out along with seven (7) others issued to Azman Air following a serious incident on its aircraft, a Boeing 737-500 aircraft with registration marks 5N-AIS which occurred at Port Harcourt, Nigeria on 3rd January, 2019.

The AIB-N made these known when it released final reports on three serious incidents including Max Air Limited’s Boeing 747 aircraft from 2019, Nigerian Police Airwing, Cessna Citation 560 XLS aircraft as well as Azman Air service Limited, Boeing 737-500 which occurred in 2019.

On the Azman Air flight which got Seven (7) Safety recommendations, and one immediate recommendation directed to the NCAA, the AIB revealed that the casual factor was a result of failure of number 4 and 5 bearings of engine number 2 leading to loss of power during approach of the aircraft.

Contributory factors according to the AIB included: failure to recognise the abnormal engine conditions (surge) during cruise phase and hence, not making appropriate decision. This might have been connected to the insufficient technical knowledge and loss of situational awareness.

Other are non implementation of the Flight Data Monitoring programme in accordance with 2.2.5.1 of Azman Air Safety Management System Manual, non rectification of the number two engine vibration anomalies recorded over a period of 8 months, inadequate regulatory oversight of the Azman Air Safety Management System.

It said no action has been taken on the Immediate Safety Recommendations.

On the Max Air Incident, seven (7) safety recommendations were proffered as the AIB explained that the aircraft with registration marks 5N-DBK, Flight NGL2092 departed King Abdul Aziz International Airport, Jeddah; Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, (OEJN) with returning Hajj pilgrims bound for Minna Airport, Nigeria, (DNMN).

The aircraft touched down on the right of the centreline of RWY 05 with the left main wheels first and the number one engine nacelle impacted the runway and was dragged along the runway centreline.

AIB identified excessive rudder and aileron inputs at short finals phase of the approach as causal factors while decision to continue the ILS approach runway 05 with erratic localizer signals and an un-stabilized approach with a no go-around decision as contributory factors.