Max Air B737-400: Bureau reels out urgent actions to airline, regulators

By Business A.M.

The Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB), has released the preliminary report on the serious incident involving a Boeing 737-400 aircraft operated by Max Air Limited with nationality and registration marks 5N-MBD, which occurred between take off at Yola Airport Adamawa State and on landing at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja Nigeria on 7 May 2023.

From the initial findings of the Bureau,  the flight crew were licensed and qualified to conduct the flight while the aircraft had a valid Certificate of Airworthiness.

However, the investigative body reeled out some safety recommendations to be implemented immediately by the airline and the regulatory authority.

The first is that Max Air Limited quality assurance should ensure maintenance activities are supervised and monitored in accordance with the Maintenance Control Manual.

It asked the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to: (a) Conduct regular safety management system (SMS) assessments to evaluate the capability of Max Air limited to effectively manage safety. (b) Ensure that the PMI and POI of Max Air Limited increase surveillance and oversight to ensure maintenance and flight operations are carried out in accordance with NCAA Technical Guidance Material (TGM) Volume IV, (Airworthiness Inspector’s Handbook) Chapter 23, (Continuing Surveillance) and TGM Volume III Flight Operations Inspector’s Handbook Chapter 30 (Continuing Surveillance).

(c.) It also recommended that Max Air Limited should ensure that flight crew display good situational awareness and airmanship at all times during conduct of flight operations in accordance with Max Air operations manual.

It asked NCAA to invoke the relevant sections of Nig.CARs 2015 in accordance with IS 1.3.3 Legal Enforcement Actions to non-compliant operators with the AOL (NCAA/FSG/AOL/19/03) on continuous overwriting of Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) Information.

The NSIB also recommended that the NCAA should ensure the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) provide uninterrupted power supply in order to avoid vulnerability of their operational equipment.