Sunday, 23 May 2021: The Accident Investigation Bureau, Nigeria, on Saturday, 22 May, said it has recovered the black box of a Nigerian Air Force Beechcraft 350 jet that crashed on Friday near the Kaduna International Airport.
AIB-N said its investigators will download and analyze vital information contained in the recorders to ascertain the cause of the crash that claimed the lives of 11 military personnel including the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen Ibrahim Attahiru.
This was contained in a statement titled, ‘AIB-N To Conduct Kaduna Crash Investigation’ signed by AIB-N General Manager, Public Affairs, Tunji Oketunbi.
According to the International Civil Aviation Organisation, the United Nations specialised agency for global aviation regulation, black boxes, also known as flight recorders, are one of the most relied upon resources for the improvement of aviation safety. Audio recordings from cockpit voice recorders are valuable for post-accident safety analysis, especially to know what transpired in the aircraft (mostly pilots’ last conversation) prior to accidents.
Usually, the AIB-N, according to its mandate, only probes civil aviation accidents and incidents in Nigeria and not military accidents or incidents. But Oketunbi said NAF mandated AIB-N to lead the investigation into the crash.
“The Flight Data Recorder (FDR) and the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) from the accidented aircraft have been recovered and investigation has commenced.
“Investigators will download and analyse vital information contained in the recorders at the AIB-N’s world class Flight Safety Laboratory, in Abuja.
“The mandate given to AIB-N is based on the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the two agencies on July 1, 2020 covering areas of mutual assistance,” the statement partly read.
CEOAFRICA had earlier reported that the Defence Headquarters on Friday said bad weather was responsible for the crash of the NAF jet.
President Muhammadu Buhari had on January 26, 2021 appointed Attahiru to succeed Lt-Gen. Tukur Buratai as COAS.
