7-Member committee to probe Ethiopian cargo plane crash
The Ghana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) yesterday inaugurated a seven-member committee to investigate the circumstances leading to last Saturday’s accident involving an Ethiopian Airline aircraft at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA).
Advertisement
It is chaired by Captain Joshua Agyekum, an aviation safety inspector.
Other members are Mr Daniel Abossey, Mr Emmanuel Vowotor, Mrs Anita Adjei Nmashie, Mrs Jasmine Wih-Sika, Rev Dr Nyakotey Quao and Capt. Daniel Agyare, who co-chairs the committee.
The terms of reference of the committee are to find out the possible cause of the accident, make recommendations to that effect and address any other relevant issues.
It has up to February 28, 2015 to present its report to the management of the GCAA.
The Acting Director-General of the GCAA, Mr Abdulai Alhassan, who inaugurated the committee, later told the Daily Graphic that his outfit had officially written to the Ministry of Transport to inform it about the accident.
Meanwhile, officials of the GCAA have held discussions with their counterparts from Togo and officials of Ethiopian Airline over the accident.
The accident
The cargo aircraft — Flight ET–AQV — travelling from Lome to Accra, was reported to have skidded off the runway of the KIA on landing.
Other Trending Stories
The three-member crew on board the flight was said to have sustained minor injuries and were treated and discharged at the 37 Military Hospital.
The accident scene was cordoned off afterwards, as emergency teams from the GCAA, the Ghana Airports Company Limited, the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS), the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF), the Ghana Police Service, the National Security and the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) searched for clues in respect of the cause of the accident.
Last Saturday’s accident was the second in recent years that a cargo aircraft had crash-landed at the KIA.
On June 2, 2012, a Boeing 727-200 cargo plane, operated by Allied Air of Nigeria, overshot the KIA runway and struck a minibus on the El-Wak-Burma Camp road, killing 10 passengers, including the driver.
All is well
These accidents must be troubling to the GCAA, given the long-standing safety record of the KIA.
“We would have been happy it never occurred at all, but there is no cause for alarm,” Mr Alhassan told the Daily Graphic.
He said although the GCAA was concerned about the recent accidents at the KIA, “we should not over-drum the issue”.
He assured the public that “everything is safe” and that operations at the airport were normal.
Advice
Notwithstanding the assurance of normal operations at the airport, Mr Alhassan advised domestic airline operators to review their flight schedules due to the current bad weather.
According to him, some of the airline operators had cancelled their flights to and from Tamale and Kumasi due to the bad weather.
Writer’s Email: kofi.yeboah@graphic.com.gh