ABSTRACT

Air Transportation is the transportation of passengers and cargo by aircraft and

helicopters. An efficient air transport contributes to economic growth and
development. However in Nigeria, It suffer from poor reputation for operational
efficiency and safety. This is attested by the present state of the industry in the
country. Recently available statistics and data show an increase in the use of air
transportation. In Nigeria this is facing problems which arise as a result of factors
militating against efficiency of the system. These factors include absence of a
coherent air transport policy, bad management, decaying facilities, loose security,
closure of airports, intermittent air crashes etc. This term paper therefore
recommends possible engineering solutions to militate/avert or reduce plane crash
to ensure efficiency of the aviation system for economic growth and development
in Nigeria.

INTRODUCTION
One would have wonder if only planes crashes in America, Europe and Asia with
the same tenacity that they do in Nigeria and Africa.
During the civilian administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Many
plane mishaps occurred in his eight years government which almost plunged the
country into unpalatable pandemonium. The fear of taken flight to different places
of the country was the beginning unprepared demise among prominent Nigerians.
The aviation industry has witnessed several loss of lives and property worth
billions have been abruptly destroyed. Transportation by air is one of the risky
challenges that has directly affected the Nigerian economy in a negative ways over
the years. The dozen of people dying through plane crashes can be brought to halt
if all airlines are prepared to employed capable hands and purchase new modern
aircrafts instead of second -hand ones that are mere caskets for great beyond.
Aviation is not an orphan industry neither is it ever just about transportation. We
know what the airline industry means to the Kingdom of England. Think BA. We
see what role it plays in the overall economic and political strategy of the UAE. We
see the Singaporean model. Airlines are inextricably linked to national vision. They
aid the development and connectedness of communities. They open the
disenfranchised to the marvels of the modern world and engender generational
attainment. We need airlines because of the sheer impracticality of total reliance on
road transport systems.

THE SITUATION OF AIR TRANSPORTATION IN NIGERIA

Statistics have shown that from the beginning of the Millennium 2000, there had
been an increase in air transportation in Nigeria. Most of these airlines which both
Nigerians and foreigners are operating in our local and international airports are
old compared to foreign ones. In the developed and developing countries plane
mishaps have some limitation unlike in Nigeria where is now a music of the day.
Deaths recorded in air crashes are more than any form of transportation in the
world. The state of emergence of air mishap is nothing to write home about.
On march 1, 1978: Nigeria Airways F28- 1000 crashes in Kano killing 16,
November 28, 1983: Nigeria Airways F28- 1000 crashes on approach in Enugu
killing 53 on board
December 1988: Skypower Brandeironate aircraft overshot Ilorin Airport runway
all the passengers died.
On 26 June 1990, Okada Air BAC -111: Sokoto, Nigeria fuel starvation during
holding pattern over Sokoto due to heavy rain. Flight from Benin City diverted
from Kano due to heavy rain. Three out of crew members and three of the 52
passengers sustained fatal injuries.
February 24, 1991: British Helicopter crashed in Eket, Akwa Ibom state, killing all
nine people on board.
May 21, 1991: A Cessna citation 550 of Ashaka cement, Hombe, crashed killing all
on board.
June 26, 1991: An Okada air BA-111 crashed in Sokoto three people died.
July 11, 1991; Nigeria Airways DC -8-61 crashes in Jeddah audi Arabia from
system failure killing 261 on board.

September 26, 1992: Nigerian Air force AC-130 plane crashes minutes after takeoff from Lagos, All 200 on board were killed.
June 24, 1995: Harka Air services 34 crashes on landing in Lagos killing 16.
Again, November 13, 1995: Nigeria Airways Boeing 737-2F9 crashes on landing
in Kaduna killing 9.
January 17, 1996: Ibrahim Abacha, son of Sani Abacha was killed in a plane crash.
The group United front for Nigerias liberation (UFNL) claimed responsibility for
the crash.
November 7 , 1996: A Nigerian ADC ( Aviation Development Corporation)
Airline Boeing 727-231 flying from Port Harcourt to Lagos with 142 passengers
and 9 crew members crashed on landing, plunging into a Lagoon will all on board
killed.
January 31, 1997, Skypower Express Airways Bandeirante 110I A crashes on
landing in Yola killing 5.
September 12, 1997: A NAF Dornier 228-212 in Nguru, Borno state ran into a
ditch during the takeoff, 10 people died.
January 5, 2000 Skypower Express Airways Bandeirante 110IA crashes on landing
in Abuja killing 17.
October 26, Dornier aircraft plunged into a thick bush near, the Niger Delta, 6
occupants injured.
May 4, 2002: EAS Airlines BAC 1-11 500 with 105 people on board crashed and
burst into flames in a poor densely populated suburb of Kano, 76 on board killed,
including 72 on the ground bringing it to a total 148 dead.

On November 30, 2003: a cargo aircraft of Hydro cargo Brussets, Belgium, crash
landed,
March 6, 2004: A spray aircraft with registration number 5NBEF belonging to
BArfreex Nigeria limited, crashed at Bauchi Airport.
July 26, 2004: Pan African Airlines helicopter crashed into the Atlantic ocean in
Eacravos, Delta state, 4 people on board died.
December 29, 2004: A Kenya Airlines aircraft crashed landed at the MMA due to
gear fault.
January 28, 2005: ADCs B73 aircraft had its tyre burnt while landing at Yola
airport.
March 27, 2005: A Boeing 737 of Bellview had one of its engines caught fire.
June 11 and 12, 2005: Lagos a Boeing 727-200 aircraft belonging to the domestic
Chachangi Airlines overshot the runway at Muritala Muhammed Airport, While yet
another overshot their runway at airport in Jos in central Nigeria a day earlier.
June 24, 2005: A Russian airport belonging to Harka Air crash -landed at the
MMA, all the people on board died.
July 6,2005 Port Harcourt : an Air France A330 plane crashed into a hard cattle at
Port Harcourt airport sustaining serious damage and killing many of the cows. The
airport had no perimeter fence and herdsmen usually take their cattle across the
tarmac, sometimes abandoning them there.
On July 23, 2005: a Lufthansa aircraft crash-landed at Lagos airport and was badly
damaged, but no life was lost.

October 22, 2005: A Bellview airlines Boeing 737 airliner with 117 people on
board crashes and disintegrates in flames shortly after take -off from Lagos, all on
board killed.
December 10, 2005: A Sosoliso Airlines DC-9 crashes in Port Harcourt, killing all
103 on board. Most on board where school children going home for Christmas,
September 17, 2006: An 18-Seater Dornier 228 Air for transport plane, carrying 15
senior army officers and three crew members crashed leaving only three survivors
that sustained serious injuries. The plane with registration number 228-212 crashed
in the northern part of the country at Oko village in Vandeikya local government
area of Benue state.
October 29, 2006: Aviation Development Corporation Airline Boeing 737 with 104
on board crashes minutes after take-off from Abujas airport during a rain storm,
All but 6 perished in the disaster. The spiritual leader of Nigerias Sunni Muslims,
His Eminence, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammadu Maccido was among the
dead.
The quantum of deaths being experienced in our Aviation industry has seriously
call for great concern of the Federal government to checkmate the operators of
these Airlines.
November 10, 2006: OAS service Helicopter crashed in Warri, Delta state killing 4
on board,
August 2, 2007: Bristow owned helicopter crashed inside ExxonMobil facility in
Port Harcourt.
March 15, 2008: Beechcraft 1900 plane marked 5N-JAH, belonging to wing
Aviation crashed in the mountainous forest of bush in Cross River state on its way

to Obudu airstrip. The wreckage was not found until 6months after the sudden
disappearance of the aircraft, All 4 man crew on board died.
March 14, 2012: An Helicopter belonging to the Joint Task force (JTF) crashes in
Kabong, Jos killing all members on board including 4 senior police officers.
On Saturday 2, 2012: DHV 111 cargo aircraft, Nigerian plane crashed in Accra
Ghana killing 10, one female and nine males. Though the Nigerian plane crashed
into a bus loaded with passengers on a nearby street in Elwak sports stadium.
As Nigerians were still mourning the irreparable loss of lives in Ghana when the
plane mishap of Dana airlines commercial aircraft crash at Iju- Ishaga, Lagos
which claimed about 170 lives and property worth billions of naira were destroyed,
one of the worst air crashes in Nigeria s history.
From 1969 to 2012, a total of 2021 people have lost their precious lives and
property to air mishaps.

ENGINEERING RECOMMENDATION IN AERONAUTICS

TECHNOLOGY THAT WOULD IMPROVE THE HEALTH OF OUR
AVIATION SECTOR
The Use of Flight Simulators
The improved technology of flight simulators now allows airlines to avoid the
inherent risks of dangerous training maneuvers. Some the incidents listed above
would never have happened if adequate simulators had been available and used to
duplicate the required maneuvers. Simulators also tend to prevent accidents by
their ability to train pilots to a higher level of competence than is possible in actual
airplane training. That is because many maneuvers can be performed in simulators

that are just too dangerous in airplanes and they can be repeated multiple times
until the pilot is honed to a very sharp edge. Since 60% to 80% of airline accidents
are attributable to pilot error, it follows that better training of pilots is a potent tool
in the prevention of accidents.
In 1994, January 7 to be precise Atlantic Coast Airlines/United Express crashed,
while on approach to the Columbus, Ohio airport. The NTSB listed 6 factors as
either causal or contributory, in its analysis of that accident. Three of those point to
lack of simulator training:
"An aerodynamic stall that occurred when the flight crew allowed the airspeed to
decay to stall speed following a very poorly planned and executed approach
characterized by an absence of procedural discipline;
Improper pilot response to the stall warning, including failure to advance the power
levers to maximum, and inappropriately raising the flaps;
The unavailability of suitable training simulators that precluded fully effective
flight crew training. At the time of the accident, there was no J-4101 simulator
available for training anywhere in the world. None of those would have happened
in Ohio, USA if adequate simulators had been available for that type of dangerous
training.

Implementation of Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System

This is a system designed to alert pilots if their aircraft is in immediate danger of
flying into the ground or an obstacle. Enhanced ground proximity warning system
use a combination of radar and aircraft monitoring systems to tell pilots when their
aircraft is at risk of colliding with the ground.

New technology systems match positioning information with a terrain database to

give pilots an even earlier warning of a potential collision with the ground. This
technology is fitted with predictive terrain hazard warning functions which
makes it alert pilots if they are too low. An alarm sounds and a computer shouts
"terrain, pull up."
"These have visual screen displays to give pilots an earlier and clearer warning of
potential ground collision risks. The system monitors an aircraft's height above
ground as determined by a radar altimeter. Its a computer then keeps track of these
readings, calculates trends, and will warn the captain with visual and audio
messages if the aircraft is in certain defined flying configurations

The Use of Fire Retardant Materials

Forty percent of the passengers who survive the impact of an aircraft accident
subsequently die in a post-crash fire. Unless this percentage is reduced or the
accident rate decreases, the number of fire fatalities will increase by 4 percent each
year with the expected growth in passenger air traffic.
Compounding the upward trend in aircraft fire fatalities is the additional fire load
associated with the 1 percent annual growth in the use of lightweight, combustible
polymers and composites for aircraft interiors and structures. Current aircraft
utilize several tons of combustible plastics for cabin interior components. This is a
fire load comparable to the equivalent weight of aviation fuel.
The use of materials with improved fire resistance (relative to commodity plastics)
would go a long way in saving lives.

In combination with other fire-safety system improvements, ultra-fire-resistant

materials will eliminate catastrophic inflight fuselage fires and provide a minimum
of 10 minutes of passenger escape time in a post-crash fire.
The objective of the Fire-Resistant Materials program is to eliminate burning cabin
materials as a cause of death in aircraft accidents.
Aircraft materials which should be targeted for upgraded fire resistance are:
Thermoset resins for interior decorative panels, secondary composites, and
adhesives.
Thermoplastics for decorative facings, telecommunication equipment, passenger
service units, molded seat parts, transparencies, and electrical wiring.
Textile fibers for upholstery, carpets, decorative murals, and, tapestries.
Elastomers (rubber) for seat cushions, pillows, and sealants.
I strongly believe that by employing the afore-mentioned technologies in Nigeria
Aviation system, the tenacity in which plane crashes would be subdued.