The National Safety Investigation Bureau, NSIB, has released the preliminary report into the Max Air serious incident on May 7, 2023.
The serious incident occurred between take off at Yola, Airport Adamawa State and on landing at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.
The Director General, NSIB, Mr. Akin Olateru at a news conference listed the bureau’s initial findings during the investigation and gave safety recommendations.
Among the initial findings was that, Max Air Limited stated that they were unaware of the NCAA All Operators Letter (AOL) (NCAA/FSG/AOL/19/03) in respect of continuous overwriting of Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) Information and wrong tech log entry of the serial number of the incident aircraft.
According to Olateru other findings revealed that, the quality control department did not supervise the maintenance action of the brake unit and wheel change on 5N-MBD conducted on 5th May 2023 and that the crew did not take adequate measures to confirm the information about the missing wheel assembly.
In its recommendations, the NSIB boss said, the airline quality Assurance should ensure maintenance activities are supervised and monitored in accordance with Maintenance Control Manual, ensure that the PMI and POI of Max Air Limited increase surveillance and oversight to ensure maintenance and flight operations are carried out in accordance with NCAA Technical Guidance Material (TGM) Volume IV (Airworthiness Inspector’s Handbook) Chapter 23 (Continuing Surveillance) and TGM Volume III Flight Operations Inspector’s Handbook Chapter 30 (Continuing Surveillance).
“Max Air Limited should ensure that flight crew display good situational awareness and airmanship at all times during conduct of flight operations in accordance with Max Air ops manual”.
While NCAA should, conduct regular safety management system (SMS) assessments to evaluate the capability of Max Air limited to effectively manage safety, invoke the relevant sections of Nig.CARs 2015 in accordance with IS 1.3.3 Legal Enforcement Actions to non-compliant operators with the AOL (NCAA/FSG/AOL/19/03) on continuous overwriting of Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) Information.
“NCAA should ensure FAAN/NAMA provide uninterrupted power supply in order to avoid vulnerability of their operational equipment”.
Olateru stated that, further inspection are ongoing of the roller bearing and other accessories, retrieval of pertinent document from Max Air limited and other stakeholder and pertinent factors leading to drafting of the final report.
