EAS Airlines Flight 4226

On 4 May 2002, the aircraft serving the route, a BAC One-Eleven 525FT with 69 passengers and 8 crew members on board, crashed into Gwammaja Quarters, a densely-populated residential area located approximately three kilometres (1.9 mi; 1.6 nmi) from the airport, and burst into flames, resulting in the deaths of 66 passengers and 7 crew.The extended landing gear further aggravated the condition, and the aircraft eventually crashed due to the compromised airspeed.Due to the absence of usable flight recorders, the reasons for the crew to accidentally overrun the runway could not be determined.The flight was expected to take-off at around 13:30 p.m with Captain Peter Inneh and First Officer Chris Adegboye as the pilots.Captain Peter jokingly stated: "FL280 (28,000 ft (8,500 m)) for EXW4226, ready for space travel" and the ATC cleared them for take-off from Kano's Runway 23 and gave the crew a brief information regarding the temperature and the weather ahead.[3]: 25–26, 48 Even though the aircraft had successfully taken off from the runway, its airspeed began to drop and the crew was faced with an impending stall condition.Eyewitnesses stated that people on the ground began to wail and scream, rushing to the crash site to search for their relatives trapped inside the rubble.Firefighters reached the crash site within 10 minutes after the accident, but due to the large amount of onlookers and volunteers they couldn't swiftly conduct the rescue operation.The absence of water sources at the crash site and the hostile behaviour from the crowd towards the crew further worsened the situation.The Lebanese passenger immediately got out of the aircraft's exit door[22] and met with another survivor, who was found lying under a shed.[16] Authorities stated that the local mortuaries had been filled to capacity due to the numbers of the dead and as a result corpses were piled on the floor.[26] Due to the accident, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo cut short his visit to states in Southern Africa and immediately returned to Abuja to observe the situation.[16] Vice President Atiku Abubakar visited the crash site on May 4, but during his speech angry locals pelted his convoy with stones, prompting the police to fire tear gas onto the crowd.He reportedly visited the crash without prior announcement, under tight security, and avoided taking questions from the public.[29][30] President Obasanjo pledged a total of $86,000 federal funds to the victims of the crash, further stating that destroyed houses would be rebuilt.The committee would be in charge of collection and distribution of aids to the victims and would be headed by the deputy governor of Kano.Prior to the burial, a prayer service had been held in Gidan Rumfa, the Palace of Emir of Kano.[34][35] In response to the crash, Nigerian Minister of Aviation Kema Chikwe grounded every BAC One-Eleven in the country.The crew were probably busy checking the engine parameters and aircraft instruments until they shifted their attention to the runway outside, which was already too late due to the length.But before it managed to completely take off, the landing gear smashed onto a ground depression, which was used as a transformer pit for the approach light.Previous investigations conducted by the AIPB showed that several objects had been propelled into the engines' air intake area by the aircraft's main landing gear due to the dynamic airflow effect on the tires.This was proved by the disassembly of the engines, where dusts had been compacted and compressed within the high-pressure section of the turbine, creating a cake formation that had been lodged between the crevices of the compressor casings.[3]: 44–48 The investigation also revealed problems regarding the operation of EAS Airlines, particularly on the maintenance culture and the oversight system of Nigeria's aviation industry at the time.There was no indication that the CVR and the FDR had been inspected on a daily basis and some maintenance data were left uncompleted.However, according to investigators, the findings related to inadequate logbook entries were not uncommon in Nigeria as it used to be the norm for most airliners in the country at the time.During an audit on the body, it was revealed that the NCAA had a ramp inspection plan, but it was lacking in details that would have covered every aspects of airworthiness.[3]: 32–36 The final report attributed the crash to the crew's inability to safely execute the take-off phase within the available runway length.