Accident Details
On May 24, 2011, at 11:54 hours, a Beechcraft C90 aircraft, registration N364UZ, operated by Shoreline Energy International Limited, departed Old Kaduna Military Airport for a test flight. The flight was conducted under visual flight rules with a planned endurance of three hours of fuel. The aircraft carried a pilot and one other person.
Eyewitness reports indicated that after takeoff, the aircraft's engine sound was unusual and the aircraft did not appear to be gaining altitude. A local farmer observed the aircraft moving up and down with fluctuating engine sounds. Subsequently, the aircraft struck a mango tree, turned, and crashed.
The farmer, along with military personnel, attempted to rescue the occupants but was unsuccessful. The aircraft came to rest on farmland 878 meters short of Runway 23 and was engulfed in flames. The two occupants sustained fatal injuries.
Emergency Response
Firefighting personnel from Dornier Aviation Nigeria AIEP and the Nigerian Air Force were dispatched. However, the lack of direct access between the runway and the accident site delayed the arrival of fire trucks.
The accident occurred during daylight hours in visual meteorological conditions.
Probable Cause
The official investigation determined the probable cause of the accident to be the pilot's inability to control the aircraft during landing due to inadequate power, which prevented maintaining the appropriate approach profile of height, speed, and glide path to cover the required distance to the threshold.
Contributing factors included non-adherence to approved storage procedures, non-adherence to approved return from storage procedures, and inadequate regulatory oversight by the authority regarding flight operations and maintenance of foreign-registered aircraft in Nigeria.