Ẹnitan Kẹhinde

An official of Dana Airlines who called into Channels Television anonymously confirmed to the station that the ill-fated Dana plane had persistent history of faults with its hydraulics in recent times and it was not supposed to have flown. She said the plane was faulty after it left Lagos and stopped in Calabar. She alleged that the Indian owners of the airline threw caution to the wind and insisted that the plane must fly in a bid to maximise profit, thereby sending the plane over to Abuja to pick passengers, when it should have being returned to Lagos for further repair.

Dana Airline has however shut down their Abuja office. Meanwhile the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) said more than 70 corpses (bodies unrecognizable) have been recovered from the crash site and deposited at Lagos State University Teaching Hospital. LASEMA boss said the residents of the buildings that the plane struck will be evacuated and taken care of.

The pilot declared an emergency as the plane was on final approach to Murtala Muhammed International Airport, and according to witnesses, the plane appeared to be coming in high with its noise up when it crashed, hitting the ground tail first.

The Aviation Safety Network, an exclusive service of the Air Safety Foundation (ASF), in a statement on Monday, revealed that the ill-fated aircraft was acquired by Alaska Airline in November 13, 1990.

Twelve years later, on November 4, 2002, the aircraft developed mechanical faults and had an emergency diversion due to smoke in the cabin area, which engineers said was because light ballast had over heated.
On August 20, 2006, passengers had to be evacuated after landing at Long Beach, California, due to a chaffed wire bundle that discharged and produced smoke in the cabin area again. Subsequently, Alaska Airlines, on August 21, parked the aircraft until September 11 2008 when it carried out maintenance work on it. Five months after repairs where concluded, on February 2009, Alaska Airlines sold the aircraft, as 5N-RAM, to Dana Airlines.

See, Nigeria is a dumping ground. Americans reject the plane, Indians buy it and bring it to Nigeria, playing with people's lives. Hope some people are arrested for this.

This year, unconfirmed sources at the airline have revealed that the plane has experienced minor faults twice.
On May 23, after passengers had boarded the aircraft, it was allegedly delayed from take-off at the Lagos airport as mechanics discovered some faults and changed the hydraulic fluid under the left side under carriage tyre mechanism.

When Dana Airlines was contacted for their reaction, an official of the carrier, who did not want his name published, said that an official statement would be issued by the company.

The MD-83 was manufactured in 1983, announced go-ahead on January 31, 1983 and had first flight on December 17, 1984. It was a longer range development of the basic MD-81/82 with higher weights, more powerful engines, increased fuel capacity and longer range.  It was equipped with slightly more powerful 21,000 1bf Pratt and Whitney JT8D-219s as standard.

The aircraft also had higher operating weights with MTOW increased to 160,000 1b and MLW to 139,500 1b. Typical range for the MD-83 with 155 passengers in around 2,504 nautical miles (4,637km).

News Source: Linda Ikeji.
Culled from Daily Times

Sent from my BlackBerry wireless device from MTN