Investigations into three plane crashes between 2005 and 2006 in Nigeria by the authorities in the United States of America have revealed that they occurred because the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria(FAAN) failed to enforce safety regulations and oversight.

On October 22, 2005, a Bellview Airlines flight had killed 177 people. Exactly one week after, on October 29, 2005, Aviation Development Co.(ADC) flight from Abuja to Sokoto killed 96 people which included the Sultan of Sokoto.

Also, on December 10, 2005, a Sosoliso Airlines flight full of school children from Abuja to PortHarcourt killed 107 on board

The records obtained by The Associated Press (AP) showed that the captain of a Bellview Airlines flight that crashed had gone back to work as a pilot despite being shot in the head years before. And in another case, a pilots' manual included blank pages instead of key safety information, the investigation further revealed.

Nigeria's government had declined to release formal records surrounding the three fatal crashes in 2005-2006, including the one that killed scores of children.

While none of the airlines involved in the three crashes still fly, the safety concerns come after the country gained a coveted U.S. safety status last year that allows its domestic carriers to fly directly to America.

The AP requested the documents about the crashes through a Freedom of Information Act request from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.

It was gathered that the U.S. became involved in those inquiries because the planes were manufactured by U.S. companies and because Nigeria requested the help of American investigators.

Though officials now say air travel is much safer, the documents add to worries about flights in Nigeria, a nation of more than 160 million people where graft and incompetence often dominate government and where the demand for air travel has spiked over the last five years.

A report on the Oct. 22, 2005, crash of a Bellview Airlines flight that killed 177 people, including a U.S. citizen, showed the plane nose-dived into the ground at high speed.

Investigators reportedly found only human remains that were "nothing bigger than toes and fingers," the report read.

The plane's captain, a 49-year-old former pilot, had been hired by Bellview after he had been working at a dairy for about 14 years, the summary read. The pilot also had been "shot in the head during a robbery attempt" during that break from flying, the report said.

"Interestingly, the Nigerian ... medical records do not contain any medical or hospitalization history of this event," the report read. The unnamed author of the report wrote that investigators would follow up on that detail, though no other documents released by the FAA refer to it again.

Harold Demuren, director-general of Nigeria's aviation authority, said officials have worked to ensure safety regulations were followed.

"Nigeria had a really woeful accident record and those were the results," Demuren said. "However, you must add to it that things have improved tremendously since then."

Nigerian officials have offered conflicting reasons for the three major crashes in 2005-2006, never releasing full reports on what happened.At the Bellview crash site, deep in rural Nigeria, villagers looted the few pieces of what remained from the plane, likely including its "black box" recorders, according to an investigation summary.

The Dec. 10, 2005, crash of a Sosoliso Airlines flight full of school children from Abuja to Port Harcourt, which killed 107 people, appears to have involved both pilot error and weather.

The pilot was "reportedly racing a thunderstorm" nearing the airport, an FAA memo reads. The inclement weather also forced the pilot to make an instrument landing - meaning that visibility had been reduced to the point the pilot needed to rely on instruments to make his landing, the report read.

The plane crash landed on the grass alongside the runway, broke apart and caught fire.

The third major crash - an Oct. 29, 2005, Aviation Development Co. flight from Abuja to Sokoto - killed 96 people, including the top spiritual leader for the nation's Muslims.

The plane crashed 76 seconds after going airborne. Just before the crash, alarms began sounding in the cockpit and the pilots' incorrect actions stalled the plane, according to the report.

"Although bad weather may have created the situation, which the pilots reacted to, they reacted inappropriately," the report reads.

Even more disturbing for investigators was the airline's operation manual for pilots and cockpit staff, which "did not contain any information on adverse weather condition as that section was blank".

The manual was duly approved by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA),despite containing the blank section.

"The deficiency in the operation manual would probably make it difficult for pilots to take appropriate decision on when to go or not to go in (an) adverse weather condition," the report said.

A 2009 study done for the World Bank concluded the aviation authority spends more than 90 percent of its budget on salaries and cannot fund training or equipment needs.

The authority "is still struggling to enforce quality, safety, and security standards on federal agencies operating Nigeria's airport and airspace systems," the study said.

Demuren, the authority's director general, acknowledges that challenges remain for his agency as it has an aging workforce and old equipment, but he insists things have improved greatly.

http://leadership.ng/nga/articles/16692/2012/02/18/why_bellview_adc_sosoliso_planes_crashed_%E2%80%93_us_report.html

and what did the NG govt do with that report?

The Nigerian aviation authority is a huge joke.

Who you go ask indeed.

3 air crashes in 2 months, smh.

Lord have mercy.