EMERGING NEW FACTS BEHIND THE DANA AIRCRAFT CRASH

The remnants of the bloody Sunday continue to linger as the community of Eju has begun to cry foul over the deadly plane crash. The aviation minister along with the top boss of the NCAA have held a meeting with the management of DANA Airways to detail out the way forward and to determined the causative factors to the crash.

The management of DANA Airways has told the Aviation Minister and the top boss of the NCAA that their operatives were already at the crash site in search of the blackbox. It is expected for the blackbox to be recovered today.

Meanwhile, the leaders of the Eju community have begun compilation of victims and other possible damages. According to eyewitness reports, the community leaders are said to have disagreed with the number of causaties quoted by the media. They stated that the number of casuaties were higher – that the Eju area where the plane landed is densely populated. And so the crash caused extensive damaged – that requires proper collation by the community leaders.

In a related development, expects have faulted the upkeep of the airbus as an official of Dana Airlines who does not want to be named  has just confirmed that the ill-fated Dana Air flight 0992, MC Donnell Douglas (MD 83) was faulty even before it took off from Abuja. She also claimed the flight has very recent history of problems and it was not supposed to have flown.

According to the official, “the plane has had problems that the airlines were aware and should not have flown but the owners insisted that the ill-fated flight must go ahead.

“The same plane had issues in Uyo, Calabar and Abuja over the last few weeks and even experienced issues yesterday morning.” Officials of Dana Air were advised earlier that the plane shouldn’t fly due to some faults noticed in it, but the Indian owners insisted that the air craft should fly.

Also, the Special Adviser, Technical to Minister of Aviation, Mr. Victor Oche Elias, has revealed that the pilot of the ill-fated plane, had alerted the aviation authority of the airport, on the emergency situation 11 nautical miles to landing. It was further disclosed that the pilot’s may-day cry was given priority, but the plane could not make it, as it crashed 4 nautical miles to landing. The MC Donnell Douglas MD 83 was sold to Dana Airline in 2009 by a US-based Alaska Airlines ahead of the airline, commencing its services in Nigeria.

247ureports learnt from one of the engineers  that the Dana Air flight to Abuja from Lagos suffered a serious mishap when one of its engines caught fire while airborne shortly after take-off following a loud slam. The pilot managed to land the aircraft safely after 15 minutes in the air.