Makamu wa Rais wa Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania Dk. Ali Mohamed Shein, akiweka jiwe la msingi Machinjio ya Mifugo ya Kisasa katika kijiji cha Kambarage Wilayani Njombe leo, Makamu wa Rais yupo katika ziara ya siku sita Mkoani Iringa kwa ajili ya kukaguwa na kuzinduwa miradi mbalimbali ya maendeleo. Kulia ni Mkuu wa Mkoa wa Iringa Mh. Mohamed Abdulaziz
The pilot of the Air Tanzania Boeing 737-200 that crash-landed at Mwanza airport earlier this month was forced to stage the non-fatal emergency landing amid heavy rainfall and thick layers of fog, The Guardian on Sunday has learnt.
ReplyDeleteThe plane, which was carrying 45 passengers from Dar es Salaam, was heading to its final destination in Mwanza on the morning of March 2, when Captain Mwakang’ata first reported trouble to ground control.
According to communication records between the Mwanza control tower and the pilot, after being briefed about the weather conditions at the airport, Mwankang'ata said visibility was near zero and he couldn’t land safely despite being given a nod by air traffic controllers.
Mwakang’ata instead requested to land at Kilimanjaro Airport, the closest airport to Mwanza, pending an improvement in the weather in Mwanza city.
But after ten minutes, Mwakang’ata – whose promotion to flying the airline's biggest commercial aircraft took nearly 30 years after failing a number of tests – changed his mind and decided to land at Mwanza airport.
“He briefed us that he was going to KIA instead because the visibility was very poor…but suddenly he changed his mind and requested to land at Mwanza airport,” a source at the Mwanza airport control tower told The Guardian on Sunday yesterday. “At the end of the day, the pilot has the final decision…in this case he and his director should carry the blame.”
According to the preliminary findings by a team of experts from the Tanzania Civil Aviation Authority in Dar es Salaam, during the landing process, the pilot claimed to have seen a pool of water on the runway but went forward with the landing.
When the plane hit the puddle, the left engine of the Boeing 737-200 allegedly sucked in water and turned off suddenly, leading Mwakang'ata to lose control of the aircraft. The plane then skidded off the runway, drawing panic and cries from the passengers on board.
The plane, whose registration number is 5H-MVZ, skidded for nearly a kilometre before coming to a rest at around 7:45am.
Fire fighters managed to evacuate all 45 passengers and seven crew members, none of whom suffered serious injuries.
Mwanza airport has been closed off to larger aircraft since the crash, as one wing of the ATCL plane was blocking the runway.
ATCL’s management issued a statement saying the cause of the accident could not be immediately established, but eyewitnesses said something was wrong with the front wheels of the plane. "We heard a loud bang before we saw the plane swerving off the runway," said Juma Kuiyamba, the fire brigade commander in the Lake Zone.
The plane, originally operated by Western Airlines, is over 23-years-old and made its maiden flight on February 11, 1987.
According to the details seen by The Guardian on Sunday, following the transcript of communications from the black box as well as the control tower, the accident was a result of human error.
“There’s a very clear evidence that this accident was the result of the pilot’s errors and not technical glitches as some ATCL officials want us to believe,” a senior TCAA official told The Guardian on Sunday.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official added, “Whatever technical failures occurred were caused by recklessness or miscalculation on the part of the pilot and his director.”
The Guardian on Sunday also established that the plane suffered serious technical damage that might rule out any possibility of flying again as a passenger aircraft.
The plane is still currently grounded at Mwanza airport pending the assessment of its condition before the final decision is taken on whether it should be used as a cargo or passenger aircraft.
SOURCE: GUARDIAN ON SUNDAY