Date & Time:
Nov 20, 1969 at 0845 LT
Type of aircraft:
Vickers VC-10
Operator:
Registration:
5N-ABD
Flight Phase:
Landing (descent or approach)
Flight Type:
Scheduled Revenue Flight
Survivors:
No
Site:
Plain, Valley
Schedule:
London - Rome - Kano - Lagos
MSN:
804
YOM:
1962
Flight number:
WT825
Country:
Nigeria
Region:
Africa
Crew on board:
11
Crew fatalities:
11
Pax on board:
76
Pax fatalities:
76
Other fatalities:
0
Total fatalities:
87
Aircraft flight hours:
18431
Circumstances:
Following an uneventful flight from Kano, the crew started the descent to Lagos-Ikeja Airport. The captain was cleared for a straight-in approach but encountered low visibility due to foggy conditions. On final, the crew failed to realize his altitude was insufficient when the airplane struck trees and crashed 13 km short of runway 19. The aircraft was totally destroyed and all 87 occupants have been killed.
Probable cause:
The exact cause of the accident could not be determined with certainty. The FDR was found undamaged but the British AAIB engineers reported it was unreadable as the data consisted only of a stream of alternating ones and zeros. Apparently there had been a fault in one of the logic units of the system, something which could not be detected from the flight deck. No readable data could be reconstructed from this. Nevertheless, it is believed that the flying crew led the aircraft descending below the minimum safe altitude while still under control.
