The accident involving a Starbow aircraft at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) has been attributed to failure by the crew to properly abort the take-off, a report from the investigative team has revealed.
Aside the crew failure, loss of situational awareness on the part of the cockpit crew, leading to runway excursion has also been identified as one of the causes of the accident involving the Starbow aircraft, ATR 72-212A with registration 9G-SBF, it said.
This was made known Friday by the Ministry of Aviation.
Owing to the Starbow accident at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) on 25th November, 2017, a preliminary investigation team from the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) conducted investigations on the same day at the accident site to examine, inspect and collect data from the aircraft and notify the Ministry of Aviation, Transportation Safety Board (Canada), Pratt and Whitney (Canada), Aviation Civile (France) Aircraft Manufacturer (ATR), the Accident Investigation Bureau (ICAO) and Bureau d’Enquetes et d’Analyses (BEA) France about the accident on 26th November, 2017 in accordance with the requirements of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Annex 13.
Pursuant to Sub-section 13.6 of the Ghana Civil Aviation (Amendment) Act, 2016 (Act 906), the Ministry of Aviation constituted a five-member Investigative Committee on 8th December, 2017 to investigate the accident.
The Ministry is taking measures in collaboration with stakeholders in the industry to maintain air transport safety and also prevent accidents in the future.
Ghana Airports Company Limited is to review its Standard Operational Procedures (SOPs).
The investigative team was tasked to establish the probable cause (s) of the accident, determine the extent of fatalities and injuries, if any, establish the extent of losses or damage to property, make recommendations to forestall any future accidents, the release added.
By Melvin Tarlue