Dana plane may not have been modified – Former NCAT Rector

By Lawani Mikairu & Daniel Eteghe
LAGOS — The immediate past Rector of the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology, Zaria, Capt. Adebayo Araba has explained why the Flight Data Recorder,FDR, of the ill-fated Dana plane that crashed last June in Iju-Ishaga, Lagos was burnt, according to the preliminary report released last week by Accident Investigation Bureau, AIB.

Captain Araba said that the Flight Data Recorder may have been burnt due to the inability of the Dana Air management to modify the component, just as he described the United States National Transportation Safety Board where the analysis of FDR took place as a credible agency in case of air accident. He however asked Dana Air to produce the Airline Directives ,AD,of its crashed MD83 aircraft.

He expressed doubts during a telephone conversation with aviation correspondents that Dana air management had been complying with the AD from the manufacturer on the maintenance of its fleet and dared it to make public the evidences of such compliance since it acquired the aircraft.

He noted that over the years, all aircraft manufacturers had modified the FDR to withstand any severe condition including fire, insisting that if the FDR had been modified, it would have withstood the intense fire.

He said: “No one knows the quality of the FDR of the crashed plane because all aircraft manufacturers have modified FDR of all planes and I doubt it if this went through any form of modification. The taking of the report to the NTSB, however I want to authenticate the report because it is the highest investigative body when it comes to aircraft accident.

“It is possible for the FDR to crash if the aircraft is an old model. It is possible Dana did not go through all those modifications being an old aircraft. We are talking about an aircraft that is over 20 years old here. It is unfortunate that anybody that died through air crashes in this country is culpable because no report is ever made to the public.”he concluded.