The Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB) has released the preliminary report on an accident involving a Sikorsky S76C+ helicopter marked 5N-BQG occurred in the Atlantic Ocean, southeast of Eket, Bight of Bonny on October 24 2024.
Briefing journalists in Abuja yesterday, the director general of NSIB, Capt Alex Badeh Jr said the helicopter operated by East Wind Aviation Logistics Services Limited was not fitted with a flight data recorder (FDR) as of the time of the accident.
A flight recorder is an electronic recording device placed in an aircraft for the purpose of facilitating the investigation of aviation accidents and incidents.
Conceived to understand the causes of accidents and improve flight safety, FDRs provide flight parameters such as altitude, airspeed, vertical acceleration, heading, vertical and horizontal position, engine parameters, and control surface positions.
Badeh said non-installation of the onboard device is a breach of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Regulations (Nig. CARs) 2023 Part 7.8.2.2(q) which requires all helicopters with a maximum take-off mass of over 3, 175kg and up to 7,000kg to be fitted with an FDR.
However, he said the helicopter had solid state cockpit voice recorder (CVR)
He said the CVR was recovered from the seabed 13 days after the accident.
“Upon recovery, the CVR was immersed in fresh water in a container and transported to the flight recorder laboratory of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) of the United States of America for readout and analysis. The last 31 minutes of the CVR recording were successfully downloaded,” Badeh said.
According to the investigator, the initial findings were that the flight crew was certified to conduct the flight and that at the initial stage of the flight the captain was the pilot flying while the first officer was the pilot monitoring.
Other findings were that the helicopter had a valid certificate of airworthiness, a visual flight rules (VFR) flight plan was filed, five bodies identified as the passengers were recovered, while the remaining three occupants of the helicopter, including the flight crew, are yet to be found.
Continuing, Badeh said there were no standard callouts for the various phases of the flight; the helicopter radio altimeter (Radalt) was snagged and deferred on October 18, 2024, six days before the accident and no dew point data was reported in the weather information passed to 5N-BQG on the day of the occurrence.
In its safety recommendations, the investigator called on the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to ensure strict compliance to the Nigerian Civil Aviation Regulations (Nig. CARs) 2023 part 7.8.2.2(q) which requires that all helicopters with a maximum takeoff mass over 3175 kg and up to 7000 kg to be fitted with a Flight Data Recorder (FDR).
Some other details on the accident were that the aircraft crashed into the Atlantic Ocean and disintegrated and the search and recovery operation continued day and night for 14 days.
Badeh also disclosed that medical and pathological tests were being conducted on the five bodies recovered from the crash site while three bodies, including the flight crew and one passenger were yet to be found.
