ASN Aircraft accident McDonnell Douglas MD-83 5N-SRI Port Harcourt Airport (PHC)
ASN logo
 

Status:Accident investigation report completed and information captured
Date:Tuesday 20 February 2018
Time:18:52
Type:Silhouette image of generic MD83 model; specific model in this crash may look slightly different
McDonnell Douglas MD-83
Operator:Dana Air
Registration: 5N-SRI
MSN: 53020/1789
First flight: 1990
Total airframe hrs:66109
Cycles:41794
Engines: 2 Pratt & Whitney JT8D-217C
Crew:Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 5
Passengers:Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 44
Total:Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 49
Aircraft damage: Substantial
Aircraft fate: Repaired
Location:Port Harcourt Airport (PHC) (   Nigeria)
Phase: Landing (LDG)
Nature:Domestic Scheduled Passenger
Departure airport:Abuja International Airport (ABV/DNAA), Nigeria
Destination airport:Port Harcourt Airport (PHC/DNPO), Nigeria
Flightnumber:9J363
Narrative:
Dana Air flight 363 departed Abuja for Port Harcourt, Nigeria at 18:06 hours local time. The first officer was the Pilot Flying (PF) while the captain was the Pilot Monitoring (PM).
Following an uneventful en route part of the flight, the aircraft was issued descent clearances to FL220 and then further down to FL80.
During descent, the PF briefed for the localizer approach to runway 21.
Port Harcourt Approach then reported the presence of cumulonimbus (Cb) clouds along the approach path of runway 21, and requested flight 363 to report intentions. Dana 363 responded "I will like to come closer then we take our decision I will advise". Meanwhile, the Tower controller informed the Approach controller that the intensity of rain had increased to heavy rain.
At 18:43 Arik Air 766 peformed a go around on the approach to runway 03 due to windshear.
At 18:45, Dana 363 was cleared for the LOC approach to runway 21. Shortly afterwards the captain took over control after realizing the Distance Measuring Equipment (DME) 2 was unserviceable.
When the aircraft was 12 miles to touch down, the Approach controller instructed the flight to contact Tower. The crew was engaged in changing the frequencies on the navigation radio receivers since the VOR DME was not showing.
An initial attempt by the PM to contact the Tower was not on the correct frequency, during which both Tower and Approach were trying to contact the aircraft. Approximately 1.5 minutes after the first attempt, contact with the Tower was established on the correct frequency.
The captain then instructed the first officer to watch out for the runway. A few seconds after, the captain was heard yelling for wipers. After a while, the captain sighted the runway and instructed the first officer to report this to the Tower controller. Thirty-two seconds later, an aural warning "Sink rate"! "Sink rate"!! "Sink rate"!!! "Sink rate"!!!! came on.
The aircraft descended through approach minimums (460 feet AGL), crossed the threshold and did a smooth touchdown on the runway at 7972 feet from the threshold in high winds of 360°/22 kt. The aircraft landed without obtaining landing clearance from the Tower controller.
Landing Distance Available (LDA) for runway 21 was 9843 feet which left a remaining length of 1871 feet for the aircraft to stop.
According to the captain, during landing roll, the brakes were applied while simultaneously deploying thrust reversers to maximum; all spoilers automatically deployed after the nose wheel touched the ground. The crew continued to apply brakes until maximum braking was commanded. The aircraft could not be stopped during brake application and the captain continued applying the brake pedals to maximum.
The aircraft was on the centreline until it veered off left approximately 200 feet from the end of the runway, exited the paved surface and came to a stop 978 feet from the end of the runway After the aircraft came to a complete stop, engines were shut down and emergency power switch was turned ON. The emergency light came ON, all other lights were OFF and the Public Address System was not working, the lead crew had to open the cockpit door to obtain emergency evacuation instructions from the captain.
Emergency evacuation was carried out using only the left forward main door and the escape slide on this door did not deploy. All persons on board were evacuated unhurt.

Probable Cause:

Causal factor:
The accident was caused by an underestimation of the degradation of weather conditions (heavy rain, visibility and strong wind on short final and landing) and the failure by the crew to initiate a missed approach which was not consistent with the company’s SOP.
Contributory Factors:
Other contributing factors to this accident were:
- Non-compliance to company’s SOP in meeting crew competency and complement requirements.
- Ineffective two-way communication between the ATC and DAN0363 during final approach prevented the flow of technical information on runway surface condition and other relevant meteorological information essential to safety.
- Failure of the crew to crosscheck the prevailing wind and also to obtain landing clearance from the ATC during final approach after contact with ATC was restored.

Accident investigation:
cover
Investigating agency: AIB Nigeria
Status: Investigation completed
Duration: 1 year and 2 months
Accident number: DANA/2018/02/20/F
Download report: Final report

Classification:
Runway excursion (veer-off)

Sources:
» AIB Nigeria

METAR Weather report:
19:00 UTC / 20:00 local time:
METAR DNPO 201900Z 24013KT 1500 TSRA BKN006 FEW018CB 22/21 Q1006 NOSIG


Follow-up / safety actions

AIB Nigeria issued 9 Safety Recommendations

Show all...

Photos

photo of MD-83-5N-SRI
accident date: 20-02-2018
type: McDonnell Douglas MD-83
registration: 5N-SRI
photo of MD-83-5N-SRI
accident date: 20-02-2018
type: McDonnell Douglas MD-83
registration: 5N-SRI
 

Map
This map shows the airport of departure and the intended destination of the flight. The line between the airports does not display the exact flight path.
Distance from Abuja International Airport to Port Harcourt Airport as the crow flies is 443 km (277 miles).
Accident location: Approximate; accuracy within a few kilometers.

This information is not presented as the Flight Safety Foundation or the Aviation Safety Network’s opinion as to the cause of the accident. It is preliminary and is based on the facts as they are known at this time.
languages: languages

Share

The Aviation Safety Network is an exclusive service provided by:
Quick Links:

CONNECT WITH US: FSF Facebook FSF Twitter FSF Youtube FSF LinkedIn FSF Instagram

©2023 Flight Safety Foundation

1920 Ballenger Av., 4th Fl.
Alexandria, Virginia 22314
www.FlightSafety.org