Bellview Airlines Flight 210

On 22 October 2005, the aircraft nose-dived and crashed at high speed into the earth just a few minutes after takeoff, killing all 117 people on board.[11] Among the passengers were Cheick Oumar Diarra, a general from Mali and Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) deputy executive secretary;[12][13][14] Waziri Mohammed, chairman of Nigeria Railway Corporation and a close aide to incumbent president Obasanjo; and Nigerian postmaster general Abubakar Musa Argungu.[17] The cockpit crew consisted of Captain Imasuen Lambert, First Officer Eshun Ernest and Flight Engineer Steve Sani.[3] Flight 210 was the final leg of a one-day round trip from Abuja to Abidjan with intermediate stops in Lagos and Accra.This was not fixed as the maintenance engineers decided that the aircraft was still within its safe operation, and thus the Boeing 737 was allowed to fly for the flight from Lagos to Abuja.Spokesman of Oyo State, Abilola Oyoko, initially claimed that more than half of those on board had survived the crash.This statement was later retracted as search and rescue personnel had located the wreckage in a village in Ogun State, about 50 kilometres (31 mi; 27 nmi) from Lagos.Several factors were investigated as possible causes of the crash, including human error, weather condition and sabotage.[3] Smoke continued to spew out from the crater for several days and investigators stated that the crash wasn't survivable.As they received satellite imagery information from Nigerian Meteorological Agency, the satellite imagery showed that both infrared and water vapor images revealed the presence of large circular shaped clouds in couplet, especially over the south western portion including Lagos and also over the coastal part of south of Nigeria.Satellite imagery obtained from Boeing also indicated strong convective storm activity near Flight 210.Since neither the horizon nor surface references existed due to the deteriorating visibility, the pilots had to depend on the flight instruments.There was also unverified rumor that the crash was an assassination attempt as one of the passengers was Waziri Mohammed, a close aide to then-Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo.Pieces of burnt fuselage parts of the left side of the underbelly of the aircraft were found approximately 100 feet (30 m; 33 yd) away from the crater.The conclusive evidence which would have allowed further identification of a post impact or inflight fire however had disappeared from the crash site.A major maintenance was conducted later on 17 October but both defects were not repaired again and the aircraft was returned to operate passenger flights.[3] Records obtained by Associated Press revealed that Captain Lambert had gone back to work as a pilot just 9 months after being shot in the head in a robbery attempt.[31][32] AIB noted that there was a possibility for fatigue and stress to being included as the cause of the crash as examination on the Captain's logbook revealed that he had been burdened by massive workload.[3][33] Considering the possibilities that Captain Lambert had been fatigued or even incapacitated due to his prior head injury, the AIB decided to investigate the issues further.The AIB could not reach a conclusion about the cause but made four safety recommendations in the report: Nigerian state television announced three days of national mourning in response to the deaths of the 117 passengers and crew members on board.Nigeria's National Broadcasting Commission added that it would suspend the operation of a local TV station for "showing explicit images" of the crash scene to the public and "delivering unsubstantiated information on the disaster".
The aircraft involved in the accident, pictured while still in operation with Midway Airlines in 1987
The crater that had been left by the crash of Flight 210
The impact was so powerful that nearly all of the aircraft parts had been turned into bits, hampering the investigation effort
Bellview AirlinesBoeing 737-200Lisa VillageOgun StateRegistrationMurtala Muhammed International AirportNnamdi Azikiwe International AirportNigerianOlusegun ObasanjoMidway AirlinesBoeing 737-2L9Maersk AirRoyal Air MarocMoroccoGhanaiansBritonsGambiansGermanySouth AfricaUnited StatesSierra LeoneCheick Oumar DiarraEconomic Community of West African StatesNigeria Railway CorporationNigerian postmaster generalOkada AirKabo AirGhanaianAbidjanThe Aviation Heraldsatellite imagerylarge circular shaped cloudsNigeriaBoeingNigerian State Security ServicesFederal Bureau of InvestigationAssociated PressFederal Aviation AdministrationNational Broadcasting CommissionPresident of NigeriaList of unrecovered and unusable flight recordersSosoliso Airlines Flight 1145ADC Airlines Flight 053Tatarstan Airlines Flight 363Accident Investigation BureauFlight Safety FoundationAviation Safety NetworkKano Airport BOAC Argonaut crashNigeria Airways Flight 925Kano Nigeria Airways Boeing 707 crashNigerian Air Force C-130 crashNigeria Airways Flight 9805Lagos Harka Air Services Tu-134 crashNigeria Airways Flight 357ADC Airlines Flight 086EAS Airlines Flight 4226Dana Air Flight 0992Associated Aviation Flight 361Aviation accidents and incidentsRAF Hercules shootdownKam Air Flight 904British Airways Flight 268Air Transat Flight 961Loganair Islander accidentRegional Airlines Flight 9288West Caribbean Airways Flight 9955Nias Island Sea King crashAirwork Flight 23Lockhart River air disasterLogan Airport runway incursionEquatorial Express Airlines An-24 crashAir France Flight 358Tuninter Flight 1153Copterline Flight 103Helios Airways Flight 522West Caribbean Airways Flight 708TANS Perú Flight 204Mandala Airlines Flight 091JetBlue Flight 292Iranian Air Force C-130 crashSouthwest Airlines Flight 1248Chalk's Ocean Airways Flight 101Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 217