Bellview Airlines Flight 210


Bellview Airlines Flight 210, was a scheduled domestic passenger flight of a Boeing 737-200 airliner from Murtala Muhammed International Airport to Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport. On 22 October 2005 the aircraft crashed at Lisa Village, Ogun State, killing all 117 people on board. The cause of the crash was never determined.

Accident

Flight 210 was cleared for departure from Murtala Muhammed Airport at 19:28:50 UTC, operating under instrument flight rules. After takeoff as the aircraft entered a right turn at 19:31:52, the tower controller advised the crew to contact the approach controller. At 19:32:22 the flight made its first contact with approach control, stating "Approach, Bellview 210 is with you on a right turn coming out of 1600." The controller responded, "Report again passing one three zero." At 19:32:35 the crew confirmed this communication and that was the last transmission from the flight. At 19:43:46 the controller tried to contact the flight, but was unsuccessful. The aircraft crashed into an area of flat terrain located north of the airport.
An alert was raised with the National Emergency Management Agency to start a search and rescue operation. The aircraft was first reported found on Sunday morning by a police helicopter search team near the rural town of Kishi, Oyo state, from Lagos. It was suggested 50 people might have survived, but officials later retracted statements about the plane's location and survivors after a TV crew said it had found the aircraft near the village of Lisa in Ogun state, about from Lagos.
The impact crater covered an area measured 57 feet by 54 feet and 30 feet deep. Nigerian Red Cross officials confirmed no sign of survivors had been found at the scene. All 117 on board had been killed and the aircraft was destroyed.

Aircraft

The aircraft was a twin-engined Boeing 737-2B7 registered in Nigeria as 5N-BFN. The aircraft was manufactured in 1981 with manufacturers serial number 22734 and was first delivered to Maersk Air before acquired by Bellview Airlines. The aircraft had logged 55,772 flight hours and 36,266 takeoff/landing cycles at the time of the crash. The Boeing entered the Nigerian Register on 21 March 2003. Inspections were carried out in accordance with an Approved Maintenance Programme at the facility of Royal Air Maroc, Morocco between 28 December 2004 and 12 February 2005.
The last check was performed on the aircraft by Bellview Airlines Engineers at Lagos in October 2005. Review of the engine records showed that engine no.1 was last overhauled in August 2004 and installed on the aircraft in October 2004 while engine no.2 was last overhauled in May 2005 and installed on 13 September 2005.

Crew and passengers

The plane was carrying 6 crewmembers and 111 passengers, most of whom were thought to be Nigerians. There were also at least 10 Ghanaians, 2 Britons, one German, one South African, one Malian and one U.S citizen.
The cockpit crew consisted of:
A notable passenger was Cheick Oumar Diarra, a General from Mali and ECOWAS deputy executive secretary.

Investigation

The AIB's investigation was hampered by the lack of data recorder evidence and the official report was not released until February 2013. After the crash searchers were unable to find either the cockpit voice recorder or flight data recorders. The aircraft impacted in a nearly vertical angle at high speed causing most of the aircraft's components to be severely damaged and/or unidentifiable. About 60% of the wreckage was recovered. Smoke from the crater continued for several days and investigators stated that the crash wasn't survivable. Investigators reportedly found only human remains described as "nothing bigger than toes and fingers."
Records obtained by the Associated Press showed that Captain Imasuen had gone back to work as a pilot despite being shot in the head years before in a robbery attempt during a long break from flying. He had been hired by Bellview Airlines after he had been working at a dairy for about 14 years. There was also an unverified report that he had been suspended for 2 weeks from the airline for refusing to fly an airplane that was unsafe. The investigation further revealed the pilots' manual included blank pages instead of key safety information. The crash caused the U.S to criticise the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria as they failed to enforce safety regulations and oversight. There were also unverified reports of alleged looting at the crash site.

Bad weather

The AIB stated that a large convective system was formed near the aircraft at the time of the accident. As they received satellite imagery information from Nigerian Meteorological Agency, apart from METAR, the satellite imagery showed that both infrared and water vapour images revealed the presence of large circular shaped clouds in couplet, especially over the south western portion including Lagos and also over the coastal part of south of Nigeria. The couplet cells appeared to remain stationary or slow moving while intensifying and eventually merging to become a large cloud cell at midnight over the southwestern part of the country; at the same time the cumulonimbus cloud over the coast of the south weakened and eventually dissipated. There was also a satellite imagery report produced by Boeing Aircraft Company which indicated strong convective storm activity near the accident site at the time of the accident. Icing might have also been a factor but only above Flight Level 150. There was also an unverified rumor that the plane may have been struck by lightning causing it to crash. Another unverified rumor suggested that the plane may have stalled before nose diving to the ground at high speed.

Terrorism

Suspicion of mid flight explosion arose when the cargo hold area were recovered from the wreckage. Pieces of burnt fuselage parts of the left side of the underbelly of the aircraft were found approximately 100 feet away from the crater created by the impact of the aircraft with the ground. The burnt parts contained a portion of the registration number and another section of the skin with the other part of the registration number. The two pieces matched and were suspected to emanate from the left side of the fuselage.
The Nigerian government then invited the Nigerian State Security Services and the American Federal Bureau of Investigation to determine the cause of the crash and to confirmed if an explosion occurred in mid-flight. FBI took a piece of the burnt part, swabs from the inner and outer surface of the burnt piece and an electronic part found within the folded section of the piece of interest, back to their facilities for laboratory analysis and screened for presence of explosive residue. The results of the tests were negative.
The authorities were also quick to dismiss claims by some terrorist groups that they were responsible for bringing down the aircraft.

Conclusion

AIB could not identify the cause of the accident, but considered several factors:
With no ability to reconstruct the flight the investigation was unable to come to any conclusion of the aircraft or crews performance or the effect of the weather on the flight. The AIB could not reach a conclusion about the cause but made four safety recommendations in the report:
  1. The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority should improve oversight of airline maintenance and operations.
  2. The Nigerian Airspace Management Agency should increase radar coverage to enhance air traffic services and assist in search and rescue operations.
  3. Bellview should improve its maintenance procedures and authorisations.
  4. Bellview should review its safety and quality control regime.