Fresh facts have emerged as to how the ill-fated Dana Air flight 992 found its way to the skies from the maintenance yard at the Nigeria Air force hangar.
Pointblanknews.com gathered that the Boeing MD83 was grounded for repairs the Friday preceding the Sunday crash that killed 153 on board.
The 28 year old aircraft had been dogged with a cocktail of mechanical and electrical problems before it dropped, into a residential area in Lagos few minutes before in landed at the Murtala Mohammed local airport.
On May 23, the same plane had hydraulic fluid issues, in Uyo it could not take off for hours due to some faulty bolts, and some days later its landing gear got stuck.
An aeronautical engineer who worked for Dana Air told Pointblanknews.com that the Managing Director, Jacky Hathiramani and Dana’s Maintenance engineer gave the order that Friday that the aircraft which was undergoing repairs be released.
According to our source that preferred not to be named, the plane was moved to the Airforce repair hangar due to faulty rods that hold the engine.
Said our source “ the aircraft had faulty engine bolts. The plane was grounded because four critical rods that hold the engine, one of them was broken in half. They had promised to fix on Monday but decided to take a gamble when they saw crowds making ticket purchases. The plane had been grounded on the same problem in Port Harcourt, Calabar, Abuja, Uyo and Lagos.”
“‘Management saw crowd of people traveling back and forth Abuja and Lagos for various events including weddings, they asked that the plane be released from the Nigeria Air force Hanger where it was grounded awaiting repairs” he said
The aviation Engineer who gave us an insight into the hidden details of the state of the crashed airplane said the MD and the Aircraft Maintenance Engineer should be charged for murder because they were aware of the condition of the airplane and they were the only one who could have directed that the faulty plane be used.
Sold to Dana in 2009 by US based Alaska Air, it had two major incidents while in the US. In November 2002, had emergency landing occasioned by a huge cloud of smoke in the cabin, in 2006 Alaska Air passengers had another scare when they were evacuated at Long Beach California due to a mechanical that resulted in smoke in the cabin. Then in 2009, Dana bought it.
The Managing Director Jacky Hathiramani and the Aircraft Maintenance Engineer gave the order for the release since they are the only one who can make such orders. It is not immediately clear if bribe exchanged hands.