C56X, Port Harcourt Nigeria, 2013

C56X, Port Harcourt Nigeria, 2013

Summary

On 14 July 2011, the crew of a Cessna Citation intentionally continued a night ILS approach at Port Harcourt below the applicable DA without having any visual reference with the runway and a crash landing and lateral runway excursion which severely damaged the aircraft followed. The Investigation did not establish any reason for the violation of minima but noted the complications which had arisen in respect of CRM because of two-Captain flight crew. Absence of two-way radio communications between the fire trucks and both ATC and the AFS Watch Room was noted to have delayed discovery of the crashed aircraft.

Description

On 14 July 2011, a Cessna Citation 560XLS (5N-BMM) being operated by Bristow Helicopters Nigeria on a company passenger flight from Lagos to Port Harcourt left the side of the landing runway shortly after a high impact night touchdown in reportedly normal ground visibility. The aircraft hit the ground hard and shortly afterwards made a rapid turn through 90˚ before stopping. It sustained substantial damage and two of the four passengers received minor injuries. The crew did not communicate with ATC after the crash and even after the AFS had been alerted, it took some time to locate the aircraft and render assistance to the occupants who had all walked clear of the aircraft. The AFS found that the crew had left the right hand engine running when they evacuated the aircraft and used their high pressure water hoses to shut it down.

The aircraft in its final stopping position (reproduced from the Official Report)

Investigation

An Investigation was carried out by the Nigerian Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB). Data were recovered from the CVR and FDR which were both undamaged and were successfully downloaded by the National Transportation Safety Board (USA) (NTSB). The FDR data were readable but the CVR data were variously classified as 'unusable' or 'poor' by NTSB, these being the two lowest points on a five point CVR Quality Rating Scale used by the Board.

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