Description

On 29 October 2006, a Boeing 737-200 being operated by ADC Airlines on a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Abuja to Sokoto crashed shortly after taking off from runway 22 in normal daylight visibility into developing adverse weather conditions without communicating with ATC. The aircraft was subsequently located nearby and found to have been destroyed by impact and fire which led to the death of 96 of the 105 occupants, major injuries to 2 others and minor injuries to the other 7. There were no ground casualties.

Investigation

An Investigation was begun by the Nigerian AIB. The Flight Data Recorder (FDR) and Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) recordings were successfully downloaded. The very limited range of FDR parameters required the application of some complex methodology to derive the sequence of angle of attack and horizontal and vertical wind components experienced.

It was found that the aircraft had remained airborne for just 76 seconds after becoming airborne and to have crashed just under half a mile to the right the extended runway centreline about 400 metres beyond the upwind end of the runway. Site evidence indicated that the impact had occurred with the aircraft nose low and with extreme left bank. All the survivors were in the tail section of the aircraft which was detached at impact and remained substantially intact.