₦airaland Forum

wesley80:
Clear case of negligence it would seem. Wondering if compensation was paid to families of the victims.

Yeah most families got $100,000 compensation.

PreyingMantis:
Not with the Ethiopian 737 Max. The pilot had no answer to that

The 737 Max was a disaster waiting to happen. Poor design of an aircraft just because you want to compete. Sad thing was, the safety feature which would have overridden the MCAS was offered as an Option for extra money.

wesley80:
Sad to hear. I've always wondered if FAAN and the local aviation industry learn anything from crashes in the country. From the little I know watching ACI on NatGeo, there's always an important lesson from every air mishap and shrouding Air crash investigations in secrecy is counterproductive.

Recommendations are made but the question is are they followed? I remember when we finally got to identify and claim her body a month later, while waiting for the death certificate, one lady who lost her uncle on the same flight told us that on that day, when the pilot declared a mayday, the ATC in charge of the flight immediately handed the plane over to a JUNIOR member who had no idea about the crisis at hand. By the time he got up to speed, the plane had already hit the ground. In a saner climate, those recordings would have been heard and the ATC would have been fired for negligence and even jailed.

I also heard that the plane was not supposed to fly back to Lagos that day. The management demanded that it return to Lagos that evening, even after they were told it was due for a quick service. They insisted it turn back immediately. If the plane had remained in Abuja, I'm sure the mechanics would have detected the problem when performing the engine inspection.

According to the report - and i have it in front of me as I type this - "Engine number 1 lost power seventeen minutes into the flight, and
thereafter on final approach, Engine number 2 lost power and failed to respond to throttle movement on demand for increased power to sustain the aircraft in its flight configuration."

"The Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) retained about 30 minutes 53 seconds of the flight
and started recording at 1513:44hrs by which time the Captain and First Officer (F/O)
were in a discussion of a non-normal condition regarding the correlation between the
engine throttle setting and an engine power indication. However, they did not voice
concerns then that the condition would affect the continuation of the flight. The flight
crew continued to monitor the condition and became increasingly concerned as the
flight transitioned through the initial descent from cruise altitude at 1522:00hrs and the
subsequent approach phase."

If the pilots had requested a return when they first detected the problem, or even diverted to an alternate airport I'm sure they would have landed safely. The sad part to it all was that they were already in Lagos and were on final approach. If only the plane had remained just three more minutes in the air, they would have landed.

Well, like they say, hindsight is 20/20. May they continue to rest in peace.

wesley80:
This is interesting to hear. Never quite got to read the report from that crash.

My mother-in-law was on that plane. I was able to get the report of the crash. I even have it on my drive somewhere.