By Dickson Omobola
Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau, NSIB, has disclosed that the flight crew of the private jet that landed on a road in the Ogwashi-Uku area of Delta State overwrote the aircraft’s black boxes.
In aviation, the black boxes, comprising the Cockpit Voice Recorder, CVR, and Flight Data Recorder, FDR, capture cockpit audio, aircraft systems and flight performance data to help investigators determine the causes of incidents or accidents and improve aviation safety.
Addressing newsmen virtually, Friday, Director-General of the NSIB, Capt Alex Badeh Jr, said between the time the incident occurred and when the aircraft departed for Lagos, the crew overwrote the recorded data, making the investigation more challenging.
He, however, said investigators relied on other available evidence to reconstruct the sequence of events and determine what happened.
His words: “I don’t think airlines are doing anything (to hamper investigation into accidents or incidents) deliberately, at least not to my knowledge. But one thing is: the FDR and CVR being overwritten a lot of time. That is an issue that we face. I think that is something we faced with the last one in Asaba.
“They took off and flew back to Lagos and overwrote everything that happened when they landed in Asaba. That aeroplane, being a November registered and operating on a parts 91 certificate, which is a not for profit, just for private operation, not for charter hire, they weren’t subject to the rule that requires them to have the 26 hours cockpit voice recorder…
“Between when the incident happened and when they took off and went back to Lagos, they overwrote everything that happened. That made things a little difficult, but we still worked with other things to figure out what happened. We are still working with other parts to get the data for that. The FDR of that aeroplane did not work as well. I am not sure what happened.”
On June 10, a private aircraft, which had four crew members on board, landed on a road in the Ogwashi-Uku area near Asaba, the Delta State capital.
Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Mr Festus Keyamo, described the incident as a security breach, saying the crew of the private aircraft were in the custody of the Department of State Services, DSS.
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