Nigerian Accident Investigator To Take Suntai’s Crashed Aircraft Engine To Canada For Teardown

The Nigerian Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) has disclosed plans to take the engine from the crashed private jet of the former Taraba State governor, Danbaba

Suntai, to Canada for a teardown.

The agency is taking the step almost five years after the aircraft, which was piloted by the late governor, crashed in Yola, Adamawa State.

Mr. Akin Olateru disclosed this plan to journalists on Thursday at the agency’s headquarters at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.

According to him, the teardown of the engine will enable the investigators to ascertain the true condition of the engine before it crashed, stressing that paucity of funds had stalled the final report of the jet crash over the years.

Mr. Olateru also explained that an engine teardown is one of the most important processes of an airplane accident investigation.

“We are about to take the aircraft engine that involved the former and late governor of Taraba State, Mr. Danbaba Suntai, in 2012, abroad. We are planning to send the aircraft engine back to the manufacturer for what we call engine teardown.

“It is one of the processes of accident investigation. Just to ship an engine abroad is a challenge,” he said.

According to saharareporters, it would be recalled that Mr. Suntai and five of his aides were, on October 25, 2012, involved in an air crash after their private plane, a Cessna 208 aircraft marked 5N-BMJ, crashed in Yola, the Adamawa State capital.

The late governor was said to be piloting the small aircraft at the time of the incident.  The plane allegedly hit the ground behind the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) depot along Yola-Numan Road at about 7 p.m.

Mr. Suntai had about a year earlier obtained his Private Pilot License (PPL) at the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT) and was certified for visual flight only, which is from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.

But the private jet, which he allegedly procured from a serving Senator, Senator Ibn-Na’Alla, after his course at NCAT, was still being flown by him at 7 p.m. before it crashed.

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