Bellview Airlines Flight 210 was a scheduled Nigerian domestic passenger flight of a Boeing 737-200 airliner from Lagos to Abuja, operated by Lagos-based Bellview Airlines. On 22 October 2005, the aircraft nose-dived and crashed at high speed a few minutes after takeoff, killing all 117 people on board.
The investigation of the crash was hampered by the lack of physical evidence on the crash site, which was caused by the aircraft's high speed during impact and by looting afterward. The flight recorders were not recovered, and forensic analysis of the pilots could not be conducted. As a result, the investigation was not able to conclude the cause of the crash.
The crash of Flight 210 was followed by the crashes of Sosoliso Airlines Flight 1145 in 2005 and ADC Airlines Flight 053 in 2006. In response, then-president Olusegun Obasanjo vowed to overhaul the aviation sector.
The aircraft was a 24-year-old Boeing 737-2L9 with two Pratt & Whitney JT8D-17 engines. It was manufactured in 1981 and was acquired by Bellview Airlines in 2003. It was registered under the Nigerian aircraft registration of 5N-BFN. The aircraft had logged more than 55,000 flight hours at the time of the crash.
Inspections were carried out at the facility of Royal Air Maroc in Morocco between December 2004 and February 2005. The last check was performed on the aircraft by Bellview Airlines Engineers at Lagos in October 2005. Review of the engine records showed that the last overhaul of the No. 1 engine was in August 2004, while the No. 2 engine was overhauled in May 2005.
The aircraft was carrying 111 passengers and six crew members, most of whom were thought to be Nigerians. There were also at least 10 Ghanaians; two Malian-French; two British people; two Gambians; and one passenger from Germany and South Africa. United States officials also confirmed the presence of a US army officer, Major Joseph Haydon, on the flight. There was also a Sierra Leone citizen aboard. The flight was popular among Nigerians and expatriates shuttling between the two cities.
Among the passengers were Cheick Oumar Diarra, a general from Mali and Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) deputy executive secretary; Waziri Mohammed, chairman of Nigeria Railway Corporation and a close aide to incumbent president Obasanjo; and Nigerian postmaster general Abubakar Musa Argungu. Usman Umar, a member of local council who was also the chairman of Nigeria's Board of Directors of the National Programme on Immunisation, was also on board the flight.
The cockpit crew consisted of Captain Imasuen Lambert, First Officer Eshun Ernest and Flight Engineer Steve Sani. Captain Lambert joined Bellview Airlines in October 2004. He had logged 13,429 hours of flight experience, including 1,053 hours on the Boeing 737. Lambert had worked for Imani Aviation, Okada Air, Gas Air and Kabo Air. He was out of active flying for 12 years, between 1992 and 2004, after suffering injuries as a victim of an attempted robbery.
First Officer Eshun Ernest was a Ghanaian national whose wife Sarah was also on board. He was less experienced than Captain Lambert, having a total of 762 flight hours, with 451 of them on the Boeing 737.
Flight 210 was the final leg of a one-day round trip from Abuja to Abidjan with intermediate stops in Lagos and Accra. The flight was uneventful until the fifth leg. While in Accra, the crews had a discussion on the low pressure reading of the brake accumulator system. The reading, approximately 4,500 kPa (650 psi), was significantly lower than its normal value of 6,900 kPa (1,000 psi). The flight was continued and the reading was logged by crews.
The issue with the brake accumulator system was then discussed by engineer and the maintenance crews. They tried to troubleshoot the system by verifying the pressure reading with another Bellview Airlines Boeing 737. It was later discovered that the faulty reading had originated from a faulty brake accumulator. This was not fixed as the maintenance engineers decided that the aircraft was still within its safe operation limits, and thus the Boeing 737 was allowed to fly from Lagos to Abuja.
On the flight to Abuja, the aircraft was carrying 111 passengers and six crew members, consisting of two flight crews, one engineer and three flight attendants with a destination of Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in the nation's capital of Abuja. The flight crews were Captain Imasuen Lambert (49), First Officer Eshun Ernest (42) and Flight Engineer Steve Sani (57).
Flight crews requested start-up clearance at 7:17 p.m. The aircraft then taxied to Runway 18L, and the controller issued the route clearance for Flight 210, with an altitude of 25,000 feet (7,600 m) and right turn-out on course. The flight crews requested a left turn-out, and their request was granted. The wind was blowing at 7 knots (13 km/h; 8 mph) from 270 degrees. The controller then cleared Flight 210 for takeoff. The flight crews asked for another change on the departure, changing it back to a right turn-out on course. The controller granted the request.
Flight 210 took off from Lagos at 7:30 p.m. The controller then instructed the crews to contact Lagos Approach Control. According to the controller, the flight sounded and appeared normal. The pilot made initial contact with Lagos Approach Control and at 07:32 p.m had replied to the controller's instruction. This was the last known transmission from the flight. The controller tried to regain contact with Flight 210 but failed. As a result, the flight was declared missing.
The Nigerian National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) was then notified for search and rescue operation. Helicopters were deployed to the site where contact with Flight 210 was last made. Search and rescue personnel were not able to pick up signals from the aircraft's Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT). Conflicting reports then began to emerge, with the aircraft's wreckage reportedly being found by a police helicopter in Oyo State. A spokesman of Oyo State, Abilola Oyoko, initially claimed that more than half of those on board had survived the crash. This statement was later retracted as search and rescue personnel located the wreckage in a village in Ogun State, about 50 kilometres (31 mi; 27 nmi) from Lagos.
The impact left a 9-metre-deep (30 ft) crater and the aircraft was completely destroyed. No major parts of the aircraft were left intact. All 117 passengers and crew on board were killed.
The accident was investigated by the Nigerian AIB and the US NTSB. Several factors were investigated as possible causes of the crash, including human error, weather condition and sabotage.
Smoke continued to spew out from the crater for several days and investigators stated that the crash was not survivable. The aircraft impacted at a nearly vertical angle at approximately 400 knots (740 km/h; 460 mph), causing most of the aircraft's components to be severely damaged and unidentifiable. Investigators reportedly found human remains with their sizes described as "nothing bigger than toes and fingers." About 60% of the wreckage was recovered. The investigation was hampered by the lack of data recorder evidence as searchers were unable to find either the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) or flight data recorder (FDR) and the airport radar was switched off at the time of the crash for maintenance so the exact path the plane took from takeoff to impact couldn't be determined. There were reports of looting at the crash site.