Delta

While approaching Warri Airport runway 06 following an uneventful flight from Benin City, the twin engine aircraft entered an uncontrolled descent and crashed near a refinery located near Jeddo, about 11 km west of the airport. All six occupants were killed, among them five Nigerian Army Officers.

A float-equipped Cessna Caravan, 5N-PAN, departed Lagos (LOS) on a chartered flight to Warri with a scheduled stop-over at Lekki. The aircraft was airborne at 07:34 hours UTC and was cleared to 1,000 feet by Lagos Tower and landed at Lekki at 07:42 hours UTC. At 08:20 hours UTC, the aircraft departed Lekki and called Lagos Approach which cleared it to 3,500 feet with further instructions for the aircraft to report at TMA. The aircraft reported at TMA and continued its normal flight at 3,500 feet. On contact with Escravos Tower, it requested for a descent from 3,500 feet to 700 feet in order to overfly the Chevron facility at Opuekaba for an aerial inspection. After the inspection, the aircraft was cleared to 2,500 feet to resume its normal flight to Warri. The pilot made an outbound turn to line up for the final approach to runway 03. At about five nm DME from Warri the pilot chose to reduce speed to 120 knots and he selected gear down with flap 15°. At three nautical miles out, the aircraft was about 900 feet high above the approach path, and cleared to land. The aircraft was now configured for landing with flap at 30° and the pilot reduced the speed to between 85 and 90 knots. At about 1.5 miles out, the aircraft was between 350 - 400 feet high, gliding with 400 lb of torque, the pilot felt a small shudder from the engine which was instantaneously followed by a need for power input, so he advanced the throttle but there was no response from the engine. He quickly retracted the flaps and feathered the propeller. Then the pilot re-selected flap 30° and also unfeathered the propeller which restored the engine to full torque. The pilot decided to abandon the approach mainly because of the a building structure ahead, close to the runway threshold. The pilot chose to veer the airplane to the left of the approach path centerline and ditched into the swampy terrain, cutting through some scattered trees and shrubbery.

The airplane was completing a special flight from Lagos to São Tomé, carrying a Nigerian delegation comprising Government officials, Army officers and journalists. En route, the crew encountered poor weather conditions. While cruising in thunderstorm activity, the airplane went out of control, entered a dive and crashed into the sea (Gulf of Guinea) few km off Forcados. None of the 30 occupants survived the crash.

The aircraft was leased to J. Ray McDermott Construction Company and flying a regular route from Lagos to the various construction sites up country. On the day of the accident the amphibious float-equipped aircraft took off from Warri Airstrip for a three-minute flight to the river with wheels extended and on landing flipped over and came to rest inverted. Initially the occupants were-seen trying to escape but two large containers of Red Lead oxide burst open on impact and hindered the escape by possibly blinding or suffocating the pilot and two passengers. It is believed the occupants did not survive the accident.

The crew was engaged in a local training mission in Ughelli, Delta. While approaching the airfield at an altitude of 600 feet, the instructor voluntarily shut down one of the engine to simulate an asymmetric descent but was unable to feather the propeller. Due to high drag, the airplane lost speed and height, struck tree tops and crashed in flames in a wooded area. Both pilots were able to evacuate the airplane that was destroyed.