Dana disputes AIB report on crashed plane’s pilot

Dana Air has disputed the claim in the preliminary report of the Accident Investigation Bureau that the pilot who flew its plane which crashed on June 3 in Iju-Ishaga, Lagos State, started flying for the company in late May.

The flight duration accrued by the deceased pilot within the period he flew for Dana has been the subject of controversy, with some saying it was a breach of the standard of International Civil Aviation Organisation.

Dana Air Director of Flight Operations, Mr. Edward Wilson, on Wednesday, said at a Coroner court in Ikeja that contrary to AIB’s claim, the 55-year-old pilot, who was employed by the company on March 14, 2012, “was released to fly as a captain for the company on May 1, 2012″.

AIB’s preliminary report on the crash says the pilot accrued over 120 hours from late May to June 3, 2012, the day he died in his last flight.

However, a former Nigeria Airways pilot, Tito Omaghomi, in his testimony at the proceedings of August 9, alleged that accruing over 120 flight hours within a period of about 13 days was a breach of ICAO standard.

Omaghomi told the Coroner, Mr. Oyatade Komolafe, that the ICAO standard stipulates that a pilot can only fly for a maximum of 100 hours within 30days.

Wilson, who was led in evidence by, Chief Bolaji Ayorinde, said it was “impossible” to accrue over 120 hours within the period as stated in AIB’s report.

According to him, if late May were to mean a period from May 20, it will mean the pilot flew “for about 11 hours everyday which is impossible”.

The cross-examination of the witness was adjourned till September 3, upon request by some counsel that they needed the transcript of his testimony.

Earlier, one of Dana’s maintenance personnel, Mr. Lawrence Edekobi, during cross-examination, said he was not a “technician” as being addressed by the lawyers.

Edekobi insisted that he was an engineer by the virtue of his certification by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority as an Aircraft Maintenance Engineer. This is despite his admission that he did not have a university degree in engineering and that he was not a member of Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria.

He said neither the possession of a university degree in Engineering nor membership of COREN was a requirement for certification as an engineer in the aviation industry.

The witness said he obtained ‘CT and Guilds’ in Electrical Engineering from Government Technical College, Onitsha; attended Nigeria Airforce Technical Institute where he obtained a certificate in aircraft maintenance; and later joined the Airforce as a technician in 1981.

He said he left the Airforce in 1992 and was later licensed as an “aircraft maintenance engineer” by the NCAA having passed the required tests.

He testified that he left Lagos for Abuja on June 3 with the crashed plane, 5N-RAM, as a passenger to relieve the maintenance engineer on duty and that he did the “internal transit check” of the plane before it was air-borne back to Lagos.

The sitting continues on Thursday (today).