#DANA- Opinionated facts

The Dana plane crash has brought about sorrow, finger-pointing, questions, allegations and reminded us all about the potency of death. More importantly, it’s best to make peace with your maker as Horatio the ‘captain of the gates’ once said ‘death cometh soon or late’. Most Nigerians were touched by the plane crash. Almost everyone knew a victim or you knew someone who knew a victim - get my drift? Anyway, this is most tragic because the plane crash could have been avoided; depending on what you have heard or read. There’s a general consensus that the aircraft wasn’t mechanically sound and the engineers who had worked on the plane had warned about this. Few things I like to point out.

It’s been said that the aircraft was old and hence should have been retired a long time ago – this may be one of the causes; I’ll leave you to make up your mind as you read. In an Air space magazine, Rebbecca Maskell wrote - ‘an aircraft’s lifespan is measured not in years but in pressurised cycles. Each time an aircraft is pressurised during flight, its fuselage and wings are stressed. Both are made of large , plate -like parts connected with fasteners and rivets, and over time, cracks develop around the fastener holes due to metal fatigue’. She went on to say that the life span of an aircraft is determined by the manufacturer and is ‘usually based on take-off and landing cycles’. On short haul flights, fuselage and wings are affected everyday as they go through pressurization cycles; long haul flights not so much. Hence aircrafts used for long haul flights can last 20yrs or more as some Boeing 747’s are 25-30yrs old and still in service. Basically, your everyday plane used for short haul flights tend to have a shorter life span than the long haul ones and manufacturers also have an ‘estimated’  date for when its aircrafts should be finally decommissioned or retired. So I am hoping the authorities start making their enquiries along these lines.

The second aspect is the rumour/story surrounding the president’s wife. The story is that she was in Lagos at the time and due to security re the president’s wife, the airspace was closed or restricted. Am sorry - this is very divisive, mischievous and coming from people trying to score cheap political points. I am not a GEJ (president) apologist, just to make things clear. The September 11 (9/11) saga has shown the world that terrorists can strike by any means necessary. How many airborne scares have we had in the last few years? We can’t forget the ‘shoe bomber’ Richard Reid or the ‘underwear bomber’ our very own Mutallab; both who tried to blow up airplanes in mid-air. If the Nigerian government makes an informed decision to restrict or close its airspace due any perceived security threat which may put the First Lady in harm’s way, (other VIP’s inclusively) then they are in the right to do so; although the government has already stated that it hadn’t. The restriction of a country’s airspace is a common practice all over the world. When Michelle Obama and her daughter visited Spain in 2010, she was flanked by 68 US agents amid a tight security. Supposing there was a terrorist attack on that day, wouldn’t there be a total security crackdown in the area and a possible airspace restriction? Come the London Olympics, there will be considerable restriction of the airspace during this event; see this http://olympics.airspacesafety.com/.  On more than 2 occasions this month (June), fighter jets have been scrambled to intercept violating planes on Obama’s tours. Sometime in 2007, a small airplane flew over President Bush’s Texas ranch while he was at the location with his wife, thereby violating airspace restriction and fighter Jets were scrambled to intercept the plane – although it came to nothing afterwards. Also during a presidential visit to Chicago in Aug 2007, two F-16 fighter jets intercepted a kit plane flown by a 75years old female after flying into a restricted territory. There are currently 49 temporary flight restrictions over the US airspace according to the FAA's (Federal aviation administration) website, including one restriction that's been in place since 2008 over Mt. Kilauea in Hawaii, an active volcano. Lastly, for anyone who has ever flown, we know that planes fly in a ‘holding pattern’ whilst waiting to be cleared to land at airports. This process can go on for several minutes before being cleared to land due to traffic or any other safety related incident on the ground; if this plane wasn’t able to ‘hold’ for a few minutes, then it wasn’t fit to fly (for those blaming the crash on the First Lady, due to the plane being delayed in the air).

Finally, my grouse is not with Dana airlines/owners or even the engineers; it is with the authority. Oh my God, don’t we have people on the ground who can certify if a plane is good to go or not? If a plane is sky worthy?  Yes, the owners wanted the plane to fly at all costs for financial gains and yes the engineers working on the plane said it wasn’t fit to fly; but who and what authority gave the go ahead for this plane to go into service after coming in from repairs? Where are the documents to show or certify that all checks and faults had been looked into or could it be that an individual was bribed to sign off this aircraft to fly? Someone must have sold out! For the love of God, our planes should be facing rigorous and robust checks before ferrying people from A to B. I am sure that in Nigeria just like the US and Europe, there are periodic checks that are carried out on aircrafts. In the US (with Europe and Canada) we have what is known as ‘Aircraft maintenance checks’ that are approved by the FAA or other such authorities. There is the ‘A CHECK’ which is performed every 500-800 hours of flying time. This check can be done over-night and can take up to 24 hours to perform. There is also the ‘B CHECK’ that is done every 4-6 months and can take up to 3 days to be performed. ‘C CHECK’ is done every 15-21 months or a specific amount of flying time determined the manufacturer. This can take anywhere from 1-2 weeks, it is extensive and puts the aircraft out of service until completed. The last one which is called a ‘D Check’ is the most comprehensive. This is carried out every 5-6 years where the whole plane is summarily disassembled, piece by piece. It can take up to 2 months to complete and cost anywhere up to a million dollars. On the average commercial flights perform 2-3 ‘ D checks’ before they are decommissioned or retired - so with this information, we should be  able to determine and estimate the life span for our domestic airlines.  

So the question is - do we have equivalents in Nigeria for these types of checks (I am sure we do; if we don’t, then…. No way, we must have), who or what authority is in charge of these checks? Who sits at the head of this authority? In many other countries this person would have been sacked or if he had a conscience he would have resigned... questions , questions, questions as we wait for the black box to be processed for more insight into the cause of the crash ( black box has been sent to the US for analysis)..We wait……. RIP #DanaVictims, #Dana153

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HOA , salute!