Bellview Airlines Flight 210

Bellview Airlines Flight 210
	An identical Boeing 737-200 from Bellview Airlines
Accident summary
Accident type	unexplained
place	Lisa (Ogun) , Nigeria
date	October 22, 2005
Fatalities	117
Survivors	0
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Boeing 737-200
operator	Bellview Airlines
Mark	5N-BFN
Departure airport	Murtala Mohammad Airport , Lagos Nigeria
Destination airport	Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport , Abuja Nigeria
Passengers	111
crew	6th
	Lists of aviation accidents

The Bellview Airlines Flight 210 (flight number B3210 ) was a domestic flight to the Nigerian airline Bellview Airlines from Lagos to Abuja . On October 22, 2005, a Boeing 737-200 with the registration number 5N-BFN was involved in an accident on this flight, killing all 117 people on board.

plane

The aircraft involved in the accident was a Boeing 737-200, which was around 24 years old at the time of the accident. The machine was assembled at Boeing's facility in Renton , Washington , and made its maiden flight on November 13, 1981, before being delivered to Maersk Air that same month . The aircraft had the factory number 22734, it was the 818. Boeing 737 from ongoing production. The machine was initially approved with the aircraft registration OY-MBW . In September 1985 the machine was leased to Midway Airlines and returned to its owner in November 1988. In August 1989 Dragonair took over the machine and operated it from then on with the registration number VR-HYM . In July 1993, the US leasing company PEMCO bought the aircraft and registered it with the aircraft registration number N171PL . From September 1993 the aircraft was leased to Aero Costa Rica , which in turn leased it to Halisa Airlines from Haiti in January 1996 . In June 1996, Frontier Airlines took over the aircraft and registered it a month later with the new aircraft registration N271FL . On March 21, 2003, the aircraft was registered with Bellview Airlines, where it received its last registration number 5N-BFN . The twin- engined , narrow -body aircraft was equipped with two Pratt & Whitney JT8D-17 (HK3) engines. The left engine was overhauled in August 2004 and installed on the machine in October 2004. The right engine was overhauled in May 2005 and assembled on September 13, 2005. By the time of the accident, the machine had completed a cumulative operating performance of 55,772 operating hours with 36,266 take-offs and landings.

crew

There was a six-person crew on board, consisting of the master, first officer, flight engineer and three flight attendants. 48-year-old Captain Imasuen Lambert was from Okada, Albarka . He had a high nominal flight experience of 13,429 hours, including 1053 with the Boeing 737. Before joining Bellview Airlines in October 2004, Lambert had flown for various airlines such as Imani Aviation , Okada Air , GAS Air and Kabo Airlines . However, he had not worked as a pilot between 1992 and 2004. The Ghanaian first officer, whose wife was among the passengers, had 762 hours of flight experience, including 451 with the Boeing 737.

Flight history

The flight should be from Lagos to Abuja . While the aircraft was making a right turn shortly after take-off, at 8:35 p.m. local time, the air traffic controller in Lagos instructed the crew to contact air traffic control in Abuja. The master confirmed that this was also the last radio message from air traffic control with the machine. The air traffic controller in Abuja instructed the crew at 8:36 p.m. to report as soon as they reached an altitude of 13,000 feet or the LAG beacon had flown over them. Ten minutes later, the air traffic controller tried again to contact the crew, but received no response. The machine had crashed into a flat area near the village of Lisa, Ogun state.

Salvage

A search and rescue operation was started after the accident. The crash site could not be located by a police helicopter until the next morning. Despite an extensive search, the accident investigators were unable to retrieve the voice recorder and flight data recorder . The extent of the destruction was enormous. According to the accident report published later, the machine fell to the ground from an almost vertical attitude at a high airspeed. As a result of the impact forces, significant parts of the aircraft bored into the ground. At the crash site there was a 16.5 x 17.5 meter large and 10 meter deep crater from which smoke rose for days. Most of the aircraft's components were severely damaged in the accident or no longer identifiable at all. The human remains found at the scene of the accident were each “no bigger than fingers or toes”.

Accident investigation

The final report on the accident was only published in February 2013. Among other things, the report criticized the professionalism of the 48-year-old flight captain of the machine. Although he had a pilot training course, he had not flown any machines for twelve years. During this time he worked in a dairy and was shot in the head with a small-caliber pistol during an attempted robbery . Because of this fact, the result of the aircraft accident investigation with regard to the captain's physiological condition was unclear. The master's working hours indicated a possible overwork and creeping unfit to fly due to chronic fatigue.

It was also found that there were a number of technical deficiencies in the accident machine. Due to the deficiencies, Boeing should not have been released for the accident flight or for a number of other flights previously carried out.

The exact cause of the accident could never be determined.

consequences

In the course of the investigation into the accident, the American side criticized the Nigerian air traffic control authority for failing to fulfill its supervisory function and to ensure that flight safety regulations are followed.

Within 13 months of the crash, two more serious aircraft accidents occurred in Nigeria on Sosoliso Airlines flight 1145 and ADC Airlines flight 53 . To improve the safety of aviation in the country, the Nigerian government issued a regulation instructing financially troubled airlines in the country to increase their business assets. In the event of non-compliance by April 30, 2007, the respective aircraft fleets should be banned from operating. Seven Nigerian airlines with simmering liquidity problems then ceased operations, and Bellview Airlines followed suit in 2009.

Sources and Links

Individual evidence

^ Aircraft Accidents in Nigeria , Aviation Safety Network , accessed July 2, 2019.

6.811944 3.305278Coordinates: 6 ° 48 ′ 43 ″ N , 3 ° 18 ′ 19 ″ E

[1] Aircraft Accidents in Nigeria , Aviation Safety Network , accessed July 2, 2019.