Wind Shear Responsible for ADC, Sosoliso, Bellview Crashes

Bellview crash

The Commissioner of Accident Investigation Bureau and Prevention (AIBP), Captain Usman Muktar, has said that wind shear was responsible for the Sosoliso, ADC, Bellview and other accidents that happened in 2005 and 2006, aside human error.

Wind shear is a difference in wind speed and direction over a relatively short distance in the atmosphere, which could spin an aircraft out of control.

Experts say it is dangerous for flights because it is highly turbulent and according to them the only way to prevent wind shear is to avoid it.

The AIB Commissioner disclosed that during the investigations on the causes of the accidents it was found that weather played key role in downing the aircraft which together killed over 400 people. Further investigation however narrowed the cause of the accidents down to wind shear.

“I will like us to cast our minds to 2005 when we had the Bellview accident in October 22, 2005. In November the same year, we had a small aircraft that went down in Kaduna and killed two people. On December 10 the same year Sosoliso went down in Port Harcourt and in 2006, October 29, the ADC went down. All those accidents have some form of weather related factors. We narrowed the weather related to wind shear activities,” Muktar explained.

He said to stop wind shear related accidents, AIBP made recommendations in the its accident reports and directed that there should be regulatory changes, training changes and equipment changes, including airborne equipment (aircraft).

“We recommended that all pilots should be retrained both at initial level and the level of currency because pilots are expected to do recurrency training, recognition and recovery from wind hear phenomenon. That was taken into Nigerian regulation and it is being monitored. We also required that certain categories of aircraft must have onboard a wind shear alerting system, which is predictive; that is, it should be able to see ahead and tell the pilot to avoid it because the best solution is avoidance,” the Commissioner said.

He said the meteorological agency installed at the airports low level wind shear alerting system, which were first installed at the four major airports and later at others.

“I am happy to say that since 2005 and 2006, after those crashes we have not had any other weather related accident in Nigeria,” Mukta said.

On how accidents could be prevented in future, the Commissioner said there must be shared responsibility among the airlines, the regulatory body and the government that make the policies.

According to him: “To prevent accidents there must be shared responsibility. The Ministry at the government level have to make policies and when that policy is done the regulatory agency will pick it from there. There are two major issues: one is safety; two is economic. Now, you cannot have any meaningful economic advancement without safety. So the first priority is safety.”

He said it is not in the interest of the operator to operate an aircraft that is not airworthy because the consequences cannot be imagined.

"The operator will lose the aircraft and insurance premium will go up and in addition, operator does not know who is going to be inside the aircraft. So, everybody has a responsibility. If you have been given a licence by regulatory agency, you have to play your own part," he stressed.

By Chinedu Eze

http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/wind-shear-responsible-for-adc-sosoliso-bellview-crashes/170770/