Status:	Final
Date:	15 MAR 2008
Time:	ca 08:15
Type:	Beechcraft 1900D
Operator:	Wings Aviation
Registration:	5N-JAH
C/n / msn:	UE-322
First flight:	1998
Engines:	2 Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-67D
Crew:	Fatalities: 3 / Occupants: 3
Passengers:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 0
Total:	Fatalities: 3 / Occupants: 3
Airplane damage:	Written off
Airplane fate:	Written off (damaged beyond repair)
Location:	near Besi, Obanliku (Nigeria)
Phase:	En route (ENR)
Nature:	Ferry/positioning
Departure airport:	Lagos-Murtala Muhammed International Airport (LOS/DNMM), Nigeria
Destination airport:	Bebi Airstrip, Nigeria

Narrative:
The Beech 1900D airplane took off from Lagos at about 07.35 en route to Obudu. It was expected to arrive at Bebi Airstrip there at approximately 08:45. The aircraft contacted Enugu ATC at 07:54 and again at 8:04 am before contact was lost. It did not arrive at Beb Airstrip and was declared missing.
Initial confirmations by the NCAA that the wreckage was found the next day at Nbagu village in Yala Local Government Area of Cross River State, proved to be false. It was initially speculated that the plane might have been flown out of the country.
However on August 30, 2008 hunters found the wreckage in thick rain forest of Besi in Obanliku Local government Area.
Investigation revealed that the Enugu tower controller issued descent instructions to 5, 000 feet AMSL (FL050) outside its control airspace not considering that the aircraft was not flying the filed flight plan route and the minimum safe altitude (MSA) of the area reported by Jeppesen charts as 11,200 feet.

PROBABLE CAUSE: A lack of situational awareness which led to a controlled flight into terrain, and the inability of the crew to identify their position while navigating to their planned destination.
Contributory factors to the accident according to the report were: the flight crew's deviation from initial filed plan to Bebi, poor Cockpit Resource Management (CRM) and the crew's inability to respond promptly to several EGPWS warnings.

Events:

Sources:
» Obudu-bound plane missing (Daily Trust, 16-3-2008)
» Search for missing airplane moves to Cameroon, 4 days after (Daily Sun, 19-3-2008)
» How 'missing' plane was flown out of Nigeria - The Obasanjo connection (Nigerian Tribune, 28-4-2008)