Bad fuel likely cause of Dana Air crash ––US experts
Minister of Aviation, Princess Stella Adaeze Oduah
Aviation experts from the United States and the Accident Investigations Bureau, AIB, have suggested that impure fuel could have caused the two engines and throttles of the crashed Dana Air plane to fail mid-air.
This development followed speculations on the cause of the June 3 air disaster in Lagos, killing about 160 people, including the 153 passengers and the crew members on board.
Our correspondents gathered that the AIB and their American counterparts who conducted tests yesterday said that the two engines and the throttles systems operate independently of each other and also support each other and could not have packed up at the same time in the air.
They, however, explained that this could happen “if the driving component, which is the key element in the movement of an aircraft is distorted.”
Sources also quoted the experts as claiming that the teams conducted tests on samples from two airplanes belonging to Dana Air and detected that they were bad. “The key components in an airplane are the engines, the throttle systems and the fuel.
“The fuel, which serves as its propellant, needs to be clean and free from any form of distortion. “Through tests we conducted on the Dana plane and two other planes belonging to the airline, we found out that they were bad and not good for use in an airplane,” a source close to the teams said.
“Unfortunately, we don’t have the facilities for the required follow-up tests and analysis, so we have to fly them abroad. “This doesn’t take too long and we should have the results over the weekend,” an AIB official told National Mirror yesterday. Last Sunday, the management of Dana Air confirmed that their planes were fuelled by different oil marketers. The airline’s officials had earlier said that remnants of a bird were found in the engine of the aircraft, a possibility of the crash being caused by a bird strike.
President, Aviation Round Table, Capt. Dele Ore, said that contami-nated fuel could lead to an air crash, but refused to comment on the crash involving Dana Air. Ore insisted that bad fuel could lead to dual engine failure at the same time.
He said: “We have said it over and over again, the answer is yes, but we are not saying it was contaminated fuel that caused the crash of the Dana aircraft.
“I was a pilot for so many years, so I know what I’m saying. In general principle, yes, it can cause an accident and cause the aircraft engine to flame out.“If there is too much water in it, it can cause the two engines to pack up at the same time. But that does not mean we should say that was what caused the current accident”. Airlines’ regulator, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, has suspended the licence of Dana Air, pending the outcome of investigations into the crash.
Meanwhile, families of the air crash victims may have agreed to wait for another four weeks for the results of the DNA tests on their relations to be released before claiming the corpses of their family members.
This is reflected in the unusual quiet noticed at the Lekan Ogunsola Memorial House, Lagos State University Teaching Hos-pital, LASUTH, mortuary, yesterday as only one corpse was claimed and eventually buried in his family house at Lekki, a suburb of Lagos.
National Mirror also learnt that Dana Air management had started visiting the family members of those that died in the ill-fated crash. Speaking to National Mirror yesterday, one of the bereaved relatives, Kelvin Ifekawa, said: “We heard Dana has been visiting and condoling with the families, but we are yet to see them maybe they will still come to my house.” He added that they were yet to receive any information on compensation from the airline. Ifekawa said the family had contemplated suing the government, but changed their mind, just like other families, after the explanation about the DNA process by the government.
Meanwhile, police are still keeping a 24-hour surveillance at the mortuary after Tuesday’s incident.
It will be recalled that an angry relative had attacked officials of the morgue with a cutlass but the situation was arrested by the quick intervention of the Rapid Response Squad, RRS, team.
So far, nine bodies have been released, although 19 of the 43 identifiable bodies are ready to be claimed as their families are yet to turn up. There have been controversies over the collection of the crash victims’ corpses. Officials of the morgue had declined releasing corpses to any of the family members, identified bodies inclusive, on the grounds that all corpses must undergo DNA test.
But as at Tuesday, eight corpses which identities they had refused to disclose had been released.
The state government on Sunday suggested giving mass burial to the victims, which the families rejected.
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