Crashed plane not faulty – Dana Air •Laments loss of N50m daily to suspension

Posted by admin Headlines Friday, June 8th, 2012

FOLLOWING the reports doing the rounds that the DANA Air MD 83 plane that crashed in Lagos on Sunday was the same one that was faulty two weeks before the crash, the management of the airline on Thursday denied, saying the faulty aircraft had since been flown out for maintenance checks.
The refutal is coming five days after the crash occurred.

The management also denied that the crashed plane was not on ferry during the flight.

Oscar Wason, Director of Flight Operations of the airline, said it was even against the regulations to carry crew aboard a ferry flight, talk more of passengers.

He added that the crashed aircraft’s registration number was 5N-RAM, while the one that had problems earlier was 5N-SRI.

“The crashed aircraft was in scheduled maintenance, it is not the same aircraft that had problems, we have taken that one to Istanbul for D-Check. It is unlawful to include passengers and crew in a ferry flight, in fact, the name of the pilot of a ferry flight has to be registered with the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).

“The NCAA conducts checks on us unannounced and we always report snags, the aircraft operated its full schedules on Saturday and operated three flights on Sunday before crashing,” he said.

Watson explained that contrary to reports too that the airspace was shut for VIP movement on that day, there was nothing like that, saying the aircraft flew freely.

He said the airline’s maintenance company named Mytechnic is based in Istanbul, Turkey, adding that they also had their back-up engineers in Nigeria, apart from the technical support they got from Iberia airline.

He said the maintenance company was a reputable one that could not be doubted.

Oscar, who confirmed that that the pilot of the ill-fated flight reported engine failure at about 14.42 p.m. when it called for emergency, said the aircraft, however, disappeared from radar screen at 14.14 p.m., adding that only the transcript of the Cockpit Voice Recorder known as ‘black boxes’ will determine the actual cause of the crash.

Jacky Hathiramani, managing director of the airline said relief materials had been transported to displaced people at the crash area, adding that senior management of the airline had visited the site and focused on providing necessary assistance.

“At this time, all the senior management of Dana Air is focused on providing assistance to the families and also full cooperation to the authorities carrying out investigation. As yet, the cause of the accident remains unknown,” he said.

He said nationals, such as Americans, one Canadian, one French and one Lebanese, were on board the flight.

Fashola appeals to victims’ families
Meanwhile, Lagos State governor, Mr Babatunde Fashola (SAN), on Thursday, appealed to family members and relatives of victims of the Dana Air mishap to exercise more patience so that proper identification could be carried out on the bodies before they are released.

The governor, who spoke with journalists at the Lagos House, Ikeja, said what made the matter more challenging at this time is the problem of identifying of the bodies.

“There is a big risk here of releasing the wrong body to the wrong family. Even yesterday [Wednesday], I was told that in the process of identifying, there was almost a mix-up between two families because of the state of the bodies. There are foreigners also involved. There is danger of giving away Nigerian bodies to be taken away.

“I want to appeal to our people and especially the media that in this period of grief, people must also understand why certain things cannot be done as quickly as we expect. We understand your pain; we want to share with you your moment of grief. We want to make it less painful,” Governor Fashola explained, adding, however, that government was not delaying the process.

“We have no reason at all to delay the release of the bodies of the victims, but our problem as I am told, is about properly identifying the bodies. The pathologists are working round the clock. I have even spoken to the chief pathologist and he has assured me that, again, if it is possible today, they will begin to release those that can be identified.”

In a related development, the DNA test to ascertain the identities of the victims of the plane crash who were burnt beyond recognition would likely be done in the United States of America.

The Chief Medical Director of Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Professor David Oke, who disclosed to the Nigerian Tribune on Thursday, said more than 30 samples from the corpses were collected on Thursday.

More than 130 bodies were said to have been burnt beyond recognition and the DNA was necessary for the relatives of such victims to identify their corpses.

The chief pathologist at LASUTH, at a world press conference on Wednesday had said that body tissues would be taken from the dead victims for a DNA test with family members to identify the dead bodies.

“Each body will pass through four teams made up of four persons each from X- ray table to determine the type of injuries for documentation, then to medical forensic to determine the cause of death, then dental inspection and proper documentation of all the action for future use like the collection of the bodies and the collection of insurance compensation,” he explained.

He also said relations seeking to collect corpses must complete a form and their photographs would be taken so that there would be no mix-up later.

-Vanguardwp_posts