The incident involving a Max Air Boeing 737-400 with the registration number 5N-MBD has been fully explained by the Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau.
Akin Olateru, the Director-General of the NSIB, revealed this to press on Thursday in Abuja.
Olateru asserts that negligence in the aircraft’s maintenance was to blame for the tragedy that took place on May 7, 2023.
Additionally, he claimed that no conversations between the pilot and the air traffic controller on duty the day of the event were captured by the Yola Airport Air Traffic Controller Voice Recording System.
But in order to avoid operations becoming vulnerable, he gave the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority the responsibility of making sure that the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria and the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency have constant electricity.
He mentioned that the aircraft’s wheel had been repaired a few days before it was put into service.
He said, “Days before the use of the aircraft, the wheels were worked on and when you work on the wheel, there are ways you are supposed to tighten the knots, there is what we call locking wire of the knots and there are other things to secure the wheel in place.
“Two days after, the wheel came out, this shows that something must be wrong with the maintenance of the aircraft. Whoever did the wheel definitely did not follow the manufacturer’s recommendation on how to change the wheel.
“So, for a wheel to have fallen off, even Boeing was also interested in this because it is their aircraft and they find the news very embarrassing. So, they are working with us so that they can have firsthand information.
Giving further details of the incident, Olateru said, “At 12:10hr 5N-MBD departed Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (DNAA) for Yola (DNYO) as NGL1648 and arrived at Yola at 13:25hr.
“The aircraft was on ground Yola for about 30 minutes before the turn around for Abuja adding that after takeoff, the landing gear was left extended for three minutes to allow cooling due to high temperature on ground Yola.
