B742, Sokoto Nigeria, 2013

B742, Sokoto Nigeria, 2013

Summary

On 4 October 2013, a Boeing 747-200 touched down short of the intended landing runway at Sokoto after the Captain opted to reduce track miles by making a direct visual contact approach in dark night calm wind conditions rather than continuing as initially cleared towards an ILS approach in the reciprocal runway direction. The Investigation was hampered by an inoperative FDR and failure to preserve relevant CVR data on the grounded aircraft and concluded that the decision to make a visual approach rather than an ILS approach when the VASI was out of service for both runways was inappropriate.

Description

On 4 October 2013, a Boeing 747-200 (5N-JRM) being operated by Kabo Air on a non-scheduled international passenger flight from Kano to Jeddah as QNK617 with an intermediate stop at Sokoto before leaving Nigeria made a visual contact approach there in night VMC but collided with approach lighting and the ILS 08 LOC antenna before touching down 100 metres ahead of the runway 26 threshold. It then continued onto the 3000 metre-long runway and stopped briefly before taxiing to the apron where a range of structural and landing gear impact damage was eventually identified. Subsequent inspection of the runway 26 undershoot found that a total of 21 approach lights had been destroyed and significant damage caused to the ILS 08 LOC antennae. There were no injuries to the 512 occupants.

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