Nigeria, Ghana begin probe into Arik’s ‘serious incident’-AIB

• Passenger recount ordeal, plane declared emergency

Nigeria’s Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) and the Ghanaian authorities have commenced investigation into a serious incident on Arik Air Flight W3304 which occurred on March 6, 2018. 

The disclosure was made yesterday by Commissioner, AIB, Akin Olateru, an aircraft engineer in a statement made available to Woleshadarenews.

He confirmed that the indeed occurred and classified it as ‘serious incident’ in accordance with the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Annex 13.

Olateru thanked the concerned passenger(s) that reported the occurrence on social media, for being socially conscious citizen(s), and assure him/them and the flying public alike, that the institutions lawfully charged with the responsibility of investigating accidents and serious incidents by both countries (Nigeria and Ghana) are already conducting investigation on this serious incident, in accordance with strict ICAO Annex 13 on accident and serious investigation. 

As a well-informed society, he said AIB appreciates the contribution of Nigerians working as responsible partners with AIB to ensure accidents are promptly reported and investigated.

His words, “We would appeal that Nigerians adopt the direct approach of reporting air accidents and serious incidents by downloading the AIB APPhttp://www.aib.gov.ng/news-events/aib-nigeria-mobile-application-how-to-download-the-app/  to their phones and tablets so that accidents and serious incidents can be promptly notified to the appropriate quarters in good time rather than resorting to social media public space, which often times, leaves room for speculations, misrepresentation and misinformation that do not support the global objective of safety but creates an unreasonable apprehension of fear in the public space”.

The AIB boss stated that the Minister of State Aviation, Hadi Sirika and all government agencies under his watch are working together to make sure that the country’s airspace is safe, adding that “all our airlines are operating safe, and, that safety is paramount, remains our foremost objective and is given the expected attention in line with global best practice, as well as the right levels of seriousness every aspect of the aviation business deserves”. 

This, he stated was an indication that,” we are steadily; albeit, progressively moving towards an accident free ‘air environment’ as much as is humanly possible. It is noteworthy, that from February 2016 till date (a two-year time frame) since this present administration, no death and no fatality has occurred in the area of Air Transportation in Nigeria”.

On Tuesday, Arik Air Flight W3304 departed Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos (LOS) for Kotoka International Airport, Accra (ACC) at approximately 19:15hrs for a 55-minute flight. The flight was operated by a Dash 8 Q400 turbo propeller aircraft.

Close to arrival and approximately 81 miles from ACC, passengers reported smoke in the cabin of the aircraft.

The captain confirmed that there was smoke in the cabin from an unknown source, but secured the operation of the aircraft. He declared an emergency and landed the aircraft in accordance with emergency landing procedures.

All passengers and crew disembarked safely and ultimately received their baggage. The Ghanaian aviation authorities had been notified and (in partnership with Nigerian Civil aviation authorities) are in charge of inquiring into, and investigating the incident.

He further disclosed that the aircraft had since remained on ground in Accra accordingly.

A concerned citizen who preferred anonymity had gone on social media to recount his ordeal and that of other passengers in the Arik’s light aircraft which destination was Accra, Ghana.

The source narrated that he boarded Arik air flight W3304 to Accra on Tuesday March 6, 2018. He gave the name of the as STEPHEN. The aircraft was a Dash 8 NextGen propeller aircraft. The flight took off precisely 7.20pm (Lagos time)

He explained that 35 minutes into the 55 minutes flight, he started perceiving something smelling like a burning stuff, adding that shortly after the guy sitting next to me asked him if perceived any smell of burning stuff which confirmed my worst fears.

“Before you could say jack, smoke has filled the cabin. The air hostesses were busy scampering around opening the cabins and the lavatories to check if they could trace the source of the smoke without success”.

“While that continued, the oxygen masks that were always being advertised during the safety demo prior to take-off couldn’t be released instead we were handed tissue papers (otherwise called serviettes) to use to cover our noses to minimize and filter out possible carbon monoxide inhalation.

“About five minutes after, precisely with 15 minutes of flight time remaining, the pilot came on the public address system to inform us that they have smoke coming into the cabin and that they don’t know the source and that they have DECLARED EMERGENCY”.

At that point we knew that our lives were only in God’s hands. Everyone prayed to his/her Gods.

“To the glory of God, the flight successfully landed by 8.15pm (7.15pm Accra time) to the waiting of several fire service trucks at Kotoko International airport, Accra. We were evacuated into a waiting bus with instruction to leave everything behind in the cabin. Sadly there was no Arik official to address us neither was there any manner of first aid attention given to the passengers to manage stress and possible elevated blood pressures”.

After a while our cabin luggage were brought to us and we had to leave from there to go through the Ghana immigration to our individual destinations.

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Wole Shadare