A Dana Air plane overran the end of the runway during landing at Port Harcourt International Airport, Nigeria, on February 20th.
The incident happened when the plane was coming from Abuja, Nigeria.
The plane came to stop on soft ground.
All forty-four passengers and six crew members remained uninjured.
A Dana Air plane’s emergency exit door fell off shortly after landing at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja, Nigeria, on February 7th.
The incident happened when the flight coming from Lagos, Nigeria, was taxiing on the runway.
One passenger fell out of the plane.
The airline said in a statement, “The emergency exit door of our aircraft are plug-type backed by pressure, which ordinarily cannot fall off without tampering or a conscious effort to open by a crew member or passenger.”
Dana Air flight 9J-343 had to return and make an emergency landing in Lagos, Nigeria, on April 21st.
The plane took off for Port Harcourt, Nigeria, but had to return shortly afterwards due to a bird strike.
The plane landed safely. All passengers and crew members remained safe.
In case you forgot, Dana Air Flight 992 is the McDonnell Douglas MD-83 aircraft en route from Abuja to Lagos, Nigeria which crashed on June 3rd 2012, in the Iju-Ishaga neighbourhood of Lagos, demolishing a furniture works and printing press building.
The accident, a combination of engine failure and subsequent forced landing, killed 163 people, ten of them on the ground. Eleven miles from the airport, the MD-83 crashed on its tail. It and the neighborhood went up in flames.
Why do I bring this up now, a little over a year later?
Because 11 families have received $100,000 each–
Because sixty-five families whose compensation payments have not been made, due largely to documentation issues and they are suing Dana Air —
Dana Air claims “95 of 125 families have received interim compensation of $30,000.”
I have been reading rhetoric lauding Dana Air for making what someone calls “unprecedented progress” in paying compensation.
Putting the value of a human life at $100,000 is lowballing the value of life. I am surprised that anyone would be commending such devaluation.
Is the operator looking for a gold medal for forking over a mere $100,000 for a loss of life?
Is this all a life is worth in that part of the world or is this something Dana insurer is declaring a fair compensation?
The Lagos State coroner is summoning Minister of Aviation, Princess Stella Oduah and a pathologist, Professor Adekunbi Banjo to give testimony in the inquest into the June 3 2012 Dana plane crash. The minister is summoned to appear to observe the coroner in action.
Banjois a consultant with the Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB).
170 people died during the crash, including 153 passengers and residents of Iju-Ishaga.
Banjo is expected to refute claims made Professor John Obafunwa, Lagos Chief Medical Examiner.
Counsel for the Lagos State government, Mr Akinjide Bakare, however, insisted that Banjo ought to have voluntarily made herself available to the inquest, noting that seeking to call her at this late stage was a ploy to delay the conclusion of proceedings.
Dana Air was suspended, then was allowed to start flying again in September.
Then it was recently suspended again Saturday over “safety issues”. On Monday Nigeria’s Aviation Ministry reversed the Saturday decision and Dana Air is air bound again.
More than 100 ground victims are currently demanding compensation for property damage from the Dana plane crash last June. Claims running into billions of naira.
At one point, they were told that the Lagos government planned to take the land to build a memorial to the crash victims. Owners have to provide valid certificates of occupancy to begin the process.
News agencies report that N2.2bn is the total sum to be paid to the relations of the 153 that died in the Dana aircraft but payment information is unverified, and many say their claims have not been satisfied. Likewise unconfirmed is the statement that insurance companies have paid an initial settlement of N418.94m to relations of 85 victims.
Only two relatives have reported they received their “full” settlement.
March 16, 2013, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority announced Dana Air’s temporary suspension again. Dana Air had been suspended last June after the MD-83 crash. In January flights were restored.
After a March 16 flight in Abuja had safety issues, leading to a recently grounded flight, Dana Air was again (briefly) suspended.
Dana Air is returning to “service” six months after killing 153 in the notorious crash on Sunday, 3 June 2012. Dana Air Flight 992 crashed into two Lagos buildings. Poor maintenance and bad aviation safety practices led that Dana Air MD-83 to a dual engine failure that killed 153 aboard, 10 on the ground and caused many other injuries (on the ground.)
We might ask why Dana Air is returning to so-called service when it had the highest number of aviation fatalities in 2012 and the world’s highest McDonnell Douglas MD-83 death toll.
Should they really be offering flights when they have not explained away the cause of the Dana Air Crash? Perhaps they will keep flying until their remaining five McDonnell Douglas MD-83 have crashed, people grow more sense than to choose Dana Air on flights between Lagos and Abuja or LENDERS and LEASEHOLDERS choose to write better safety controls in their contracts.
Look in a courtroom and you will see that the trajectory of a case is not a straight line, but rather, one that bounces back and forth between the actions of the interested parties. It is not unlike a game of tennis, except that the ball of justice does not bounce back and forth but rather is angled inexorably toward justice (or injustice) rather than gravity.
Nowhere is this more true than in the Dana Air case. Some people question why the suspension of Dana Air’s operating license has been lifted. The airline has begun the re-certification process.
The court may well be in pursuit of justice; but the specifics of the accident and the disposition of the interests of the victims and the offended families should not be waylaid by a false move, a wrong move, a defensive move by interested (or disinterested parties.) This is not a chess match. A case with so many powerful parties involved may play deep in strategies, but we should never forget, it is not a game. The lawsuit is all too real—as real as the thoughtless and preventable annihilation of one hundred and fifty-nine souls. These people need not have died. But they did.
The court may well be in pursuit of justice; but the Dana Air case is more than an opportunity to escape through, manipulate, reveal or sew up loopholes. Laws exist for the purpose of establishing justice. We should not sit quietly as law is manipulated in the court or government’s own interest. The failure of law is a dam that blocks the flow of social progress. It is a double tragedy when the legal minds involved in a case pursue the escape route of loopholes in the name of self-interest rather than keeping the high purpose of seeking justice for the victims.
These truths are evident:
Dana Airline must operate professionally and within the highest safety parameters or it should not fly at all.
The victims and the families need full disclosure.
The growth and development of the workings of Nigerian investigation, legal proceedings, allocations of rights and responsibilities must continue, must improve, must be refined; but in the course of that development, the court must not ever lose sight of its responsibility to find justice for people who died simply because they bought airline tickets, or were in exactly the wrong place when a plane fell fro the sky.
I have not sat in the courtroom and heard every day the words of Captain Dele Ore. I do not know how valid is the coroner’s inquest. I only know that it is a judicial miscarriage for the court to permit the victim’s justice to be hijacked by mistakes in law, governmental evasion of responsibility, flawed forensics, loopholes, legal trickery or even those with a higher purpose of closing the loopholes for future cases. It can never be forgotten that lives were lost that should not have been. Irreparable damage has been done to individuals and families. The intent of the case is not to try the system (though indeed every case does try the system) but rather to find justice for the injured parties.
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact photographer Peter Tonna
What: Dana Air McDonnell Douglas MD-83 en route from Abuja to Lagos, Nigeria
Where: Iju neighborhood, Lagos
When: June 3, 2012
Who: 153 passengers
Why: NAICOM told seminar attendees that the $70,000 per Dana Plane Crash victim payment is contingent on the death certificate and letter of administration, and 70 per cent of Dana Air Crash Claim settlements have been delayed due to families being unable to submit death certificates and letter of administration.
58 families have been paid $30,000 (the initial 30%) that is due 30 days after the crash. On verification of the correct claimants, the balance of the claims should be covered by Prestige Assurance, six Nigerian insurance companies and Lloyds and Lloyds Associates.
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact photographer Peter Tonna
On August 9, 2012 at Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, two months after the June 3, 2012 crash, after that all possible DNA testing was complete (only 52 of 149 bodies identified, the rest burnt beyond testability,) the Lagos Government announced that it would release bodies of Dana crash victims to the next of kin.
Families were requested to contact the Funeral Director’s office on 01-8542254 at the teaching hospital 24 hours before they come to claim the bodies.
One family trying to claim their loved one, Mr. George Moses, found he is missing. He was #22 on the list of 29 identified names at the Lekan Ogunsola Memorial mortuary in June. Mr. Achief Olajide, a family member said that after the June 3 crash, he saw Moses intact body, his ID card and wallet. The mortuary refused to let him claim the body, and now it is lost.
Below, a retired Nigerian Air Force captain criticizes the Nigerian government’s handling of aircraft emergency.
While testifying at the coroner’s inquest before Lagos State Coroner Mr. Oyetade Komolafe, Tony Usidamen of Dana Air revealed that the Dana plane (registration number 5N-RAM) that crashed in Lagos in June 2012 had its engine replaced after a bird strike while outbound from Lagos on April 19, 2010.
Records indicate 5N-RAM also had hydraulic leaks on May 23 at Murtala Mohammed Airport.
On the June 3rd, the plane was making it’s third round trip and crashed close to it’s destination airport.
The Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) investigator is Mr Emmanuel Dialla. His preliminary report said that the first sign of trouble came 17 minutes after the plane was airborne at 2.58pm, following a “non-normal” engine condition. According to the CVR at 1543:27 hours (3.43pm), the Captain informed the FO, “we just lost everything, we lost an engine. I lost both engines”…
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Contact photographer Peter Tonna
What: Dana Air McDonnell Douglas MD-83 en route from Abuja to Lagos, Nigeria
Where: Iju neighborhood, Lagos
When: June 3, 2012
Who: 153 passengers
Why: According to the Dana Crash Preliminary report, the captain and the first officer were in a discussion of a non-normal condition regarding the correlation between the engine throttle setting and an engine power indication. They did not voice concerns then that the condition would affect the continuation of the flight.
The report included records of visual examination of the aircraft wreckage, review maintenance records and other historical information of the aircraft, documentation of the training and experience of the flight crew, determination of the chronology of the flight, review of recorded data, reconstructing the aircraft refueling, and collection of related fuel samples and interview of related personnel.
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact photographer Peter Tonna
What: Dana Air McDonnell Douglas MD-83 en route from Abuja to Lagos, Nigeria
Where: Iju neighborhood, Lagos
When: June 3, 2012
Who: 153 passengers
Why: Dana air stated that it is fully aware of the mandatory requirement by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), for interim benefits to be paid to the families of the victims within 30 days of the accident.
Although 68 families have completed their insurance compensation documentation, only nine families were given $30,000 each, having been the only ones to successfully run the legal gauntlet.
Beneficiaries said the interim payment fell short of their expectations.
Claim forms must be taken to Yomi Oshikoya & Co, for verification. Yomi Oshikoya & Co was appointed by the insurers in Lagos.
Dana Air attempted to distribute cheques as interim compensation to some individuals made homeless by the crash. Dana Air prepared N500, 000 for one of the victims, Mr. Daniel Omowunmi, N100, 000, each to two occupants of the boys’ quarters and N200, 000 each to six families in the block of flats. Full payment of the compensation by the insurance company is pending. The lawyer rejected the checks as inadequate and also not all of the victims were included.
It’s Lloyds of London.
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact photographer Peter Tonna
What: Dana Air McDonnell Douglas MD-83 en route from Abuja to Lagos, Nigeria
Where: Iju neighborhood, Lagos
When: June 3, 2012
Who: 153 passengers
Why: The plane crashed after experiencing failure in both engines.
The black boxes were sent last week to the US, and now the US has sent US National Transportation Safety Board investigators to assist Nigeria’s AIB in the investigation.
According to Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom, prior to the accident, there had been complaints of Dana Air and he had warned them to maintain or suspend flights and to check its fleet.
The NTSB published the following release:
The NTSB is dispatching an investigator to assist the government of Nigeria in its investigation of the crash of a Dana Air Boeing MD-83 airplane, Flight # 0992.
On June 3, 2012 at about 11:51 a.m. local time, the airplane, en route from Abuja to Lagos Nigeria, crashed outside the airport into a two story building. All 153 passengers and crew onboard were fatally injured, and an undetermined number of ground fatalities and injuries also occurred.
As the state of design and manufacture of the Boeing MD-83, the NTSB has designated Senior Aviation Accident Investigator, Mr. Dennis Jones, as the traveling U.S. Accredited Representative. Mr. Jones will be assisted from NTSB headquarters by investigative staff specializing in operational factors, powerplants, and airworthiness as well as advisors from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Boeing, and Pratt & Whitney.
The investigation is being conducted by the Nigerian Accident Investigation Bureau, which will release all information.
Questions follow Dana Air
Dana Air Semantic Wars
Husband Files Dana Air Flight 992 Lawsuit
Dana Air’s license Suspended
Witnesses of the Dana Air Crash Recount What they Saw
First Report of Dana Air Crash in Lagos
IDENTIFICATION
Regis#: DANA992 Make/Model: MD80 Description: MD-81/82/83/87/88
Date: 06/03/2012 Time: 1530
Event Type: Accident Highest Injury: Fatal Mid Air: N Missing: N
Damage: Destroyed
LOCATION
DESCRIPTION
DANA AIR FLIGHT 992 BOEING MCDONNELL DOUGLAS MD83 AIRCRAFT CRASHED INTO A 2-STORY BUILDING IN A RESIDENTIAL AREA,153 PERSONS ON BOARD WERE FATALLY INJURED, UNKNOWN GROUND INJURIES, LAGOS, NIGERIA
INJURY DATA Total Fatal: 153
# Crew: 6 Fat: 6
# Pass: 147 Fat: 147
OTHER DATA
Activity: Business Phase: Unknown Operation: Air Carrier
After a crash, the stories always come out that put faces on the “seats.” The one that has, so far, struck me the most in the Dana Air crash is a tale of mixed blessings.
First Omonigho Akinsanya had come to visit, and now she was waiting in the crowded, overheated Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport to catch a plane to take her home. She, with her 5-year-old son Moyo, and her sister had been waiting in line, trying to travel back home.
The airport, which is undergoing renovations is reportedly hot and crowded, and Omonigho Akinsanya had her son to manage. She was understandably upset when a man broke in line and took the last seat in the crowded airplane that her sister had already boarded.
His breaking in line saved her life. But she cannot rejoice in the luck, fortune, Karma, coincidence that left her alive. Her sister was one of the victims.
This is her sister’s sad story, and her own too, because it is a terrible loss and a close call. But it is only one of 153+ losses (not forgetting the families on the ground who were minding their own business in their own apartments when a plane fell on their heads.)
It is hard to sift rumor from fact. One rumor is that the flight had been diverted or delayed due to Dame Patience Jonathan, the first lady, but that rumor has been discounted; she was at an event on Sunday when the crash occurred, and nowhere near the airport. There was a rumor of a bird strike, stemming from an official speculating on the cause. And then of course, everyone is studying the plane’s history, and wondering if it was airworthy.
The MD-83 belonged to Alaska Airlines from 1990 when it was new until 2007, when the plane’s title went to North Shore Aircraft LLC (probably the financier) and leased back for a year. Before it was retired in 2008, it had gone through a diversion on Nov 4 2002 due to an overheated light ballast; on August 20, 2006 due to a “chafed wire bundle.” And as Dana Air 5N-RAM it suffered a bird strike on April 19, 2010.
The pilot, Peter Waxtan, was an American, and the first officer was Mike Mahendra, from India. Captain Waxton called a double engine failure. The pilot had requested to land on Murtala Muhammad Airport’s longer runway 18R before calling air controllers back a few minutes later to report a total emergency.
There has been some negative buzz regarding maintenance of this MD83 in the hands of Dana Air, and a recent discussion of Dana Air crew being reluctant to fly in this plane, due to mechanical difficulties on a recent flight, even that Dana Air execs insisted the plane be flown. Plus, it was overloaded.
It is still so soon after the crash that we hardly know which questions to ask first. There are so many questions. But if Dana Air was putting faulty aircraft in the air, they will have to answer for it. Too bad it will be too late for those who were aboard.
Dana Air is currently GROUNDED, not revoked.
Flights are not allowed, but the company is intact in order to appear in court. Whether or not Dana Air’s license is revoked will depend on the results of the investigation.
Media Assistant to the Aviation Minister, Mr. Obi said “Dana has no authority to claim that its license had not been suspended. No matter what Dana Air says about denying a revoked license, their jets will not be flying until the case has been settled. ”
Dana Air’s website posts a memorial to the victims and the following letter:
PRESS STATEMENT ON FLIGHT 9J 992 OF SUNDAY, JUNE 3, 2012.
Lagos | 08th June, 2012
At Dana Air, the safety of our passengers and crew is of paramount importance.
The aircraft involved in the accident, a Boeing MD83 (Registration Number 5N-RAM), was maintained correctly and fully in accordance with the manufacturers schedule and directives from the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority.
It had its last 400-hourly check (A-Check) on 30th May, 2012. The statutory annual maintenance (C-Check) was not due until September 2012. The Certificate of Airworthiness issued by the NCCA after its last C-Check was completely valid as at the time of the accident.
We adhere strictly to the maintenance schedule of all our aircraft as prescribed by the manufacturers, and the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority. Dana Air has a maintenance agreement with MyTechnic – an international, world-class aviation maintenance organisation (MRO) which is located at our Lagos base. It performs and supervises all local maintenance tasks including the daily servicing and release of our aircraft for operations. Our heavy scheduled maintenance checks (i.e. C-checks) are done by leading MRO companies overseas.
Dana Air will continue to offer the families assistance, and will provide further updates when possible.
24 hour assistance contact numbers:
LAGOS: 01-2809888 & 08052697500 & 08077291288
ABUJA: 07044213849 & 07026672145
Jacky Hathiramani
Chief Executive Officer
Joy Chiedozie Allison died on Dana Air Flight 992. Her family has hired attorney Gary Robb. On June 7 (yesterday) Robb filed a 56 page lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Chicago, a discovery motion naming The Boeing Company, McDonnell Douglas Corporation, Pratt & Whitney Canada Corp., United Technologies Corporation and Estate of Peter Waxtan.
In the Dana Airlines crash, both of the MD-83’s engines failed before it crashed into several buildings in Nigeria
The chief engineer of Dana Air was also aboard the plane when it crashed. Employees of Dana airlines have said that owners were aware that the jet had mechanical troubles struggling on a Calabar flight;, but the crew was forced fly anyway, and fly it loaded to the hilt with passengers and luggage.
Captain Oscar Wason is saying there may have been a bird strike. The black boxes have been recovered and will be sent to the US. The black boxes will have the truth.
Joy Allison worked for Federal Express.
Dana Air’s operating license has been suspended after the crash of the Dana Air McDonnell Douglass jet in Lagos. According to reports, just prior to the crash, the pilot reported that both engines failed.
According to Dana Air, the Dana Group is owned and registered in Nigeria. Only the managing director, Jacky Hathiramani is Indian.
These items have also been released:
The Kolkata based family of the co-pilot has been promised the remains of Mahendra Singh Rathore will be returned to them after identification through DNA testing which may take a week. He leaves a wife and seven year old son. The family is waiting in Bikaner for the remains.
The Dana Air website finally posted a release regarding the accident:
The Dana Air family is deeply saddened by the tragic loss of the passengers and crew of Flight 9J-992 of Sunday, June 3, 2012. The aircraft, with Registration Number 5N-RAM, departed Abuja for Lagos with 146 passengers onboard. 1 Dana Air Flight Engineer, 2 Pilots and 4 Cabin Crew were also aboard the flight.
We extend our deepest sympathies to the families and friends of the deceased, and we are doing everything we can to assist them in this extremely difficult time. A 24hr Call Centre service has been initiated and we have also set up an information center at MMA2 to look after their needs and keep them as quickly informed as possible.
An investigation into the cause of the accident got under way immediately, under the guidance of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), who are being assisted by investigators from the U.S. National Safety Transportation Board (NTSB). Dana Air is cooperating fully and assisting the investigation in every possible way.
In accordance with international protocol governing aviation accident investigations, all information about the investigation will come from the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority. Dana Air will however provide information relating to the flight itself and updates on steps being taken.
Once again, we at Dana Air extend our profoundest condolences.
Jacky Hathiramani
Chief Executive Officer
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Contact photographer Ken Iwelumo
The Dana Air flight crashed into a suburb of Lagos on Sunday. All 153 people on board and an unknown number of residents on the ground were killed in the crash.
Witnesses below talk about what they saw.
Using cadaver dogs and cranes, emergency crews recovered 48 bodies. Local residents helped with spraying water on the fire, but after three hours, there was apparently no water to put it out.
Passengers aboard the plane included four Chinese citizens, and two Lebanese citizens (identified as Nadim Chediac and Roger Awwad.) The pilot was reported to be American, and the co-pilot Indian.
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact photographer Peter Tonna
What: Dana Air McDonnell Douglas MD-83 en route from Abuja to Lagos, Nigeria
Where: Iju neighborhood, Lagos
When: June 3, 2012
Who: 153 passengers
Why: Weather was clear. The Dana Air flight experienced engine trouble first in one engine, then the other and was nearing to the airport when it apparently struck a cable and crashed into a residential area less than four miles from the airport. There are no survivors.
Pilots already flying on one engine had slowed, then the second engine failed.
The number of people aboard is not definite as it is not reflected in the flight manifest. Apparently some paper-ticketed passengers are not recorded on computer records, and the passenger manifest is in the process of being double-checked.
The plane had refueled which contributed to a massive fire. The number of casualties in the furniture store/workshop and apartment building that were struck is unknown.
The Nigerian Red Cross, Nigeria’s air crash safety investigators,2 firetrucks and 50 rescue personnel arrived on the scene. A number of charred remains have been recovered.
Local residents report hearing a loud explosion that sounded like a bomb.
Photos of the disaster site show people wandering around the wreckage, with the site not secured.