Sosoliso Airlines Flight 1145 (SO1145/OSL1145) was a scheduled Nigerian domestic passenger flight from Nigeria's capital of Abuja (ABV) to Port Harcourt (PHC). At about 14:08 local time (13:08 UTC) on 10 December 2005, Flight 1145 from Abuja crash-landed at Port Harcourt International Airport. The aircraft, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 with 110 people on board, slammed into the ground and burst into flames. Immediately after the crash, seven survivors were recovered and taken to hospitals, but only two people survived.
It was the second air disaster to occur in Nigeria in less than three months, after Bellview Airlines Flight 210, which crashed on 22 October 2005 for reasons unknown, killing all 117 people on board. It was the company's first and only fatal accident.
Investigation into the crash by Nigeria's Accident Investigation Bureau concluded that the crash was attributed to the pilot's decision to keep descending on the airport even though the aircraft had passed the minimum decision altitude. The pilots decided to go-around while they were in wind shear condition. This decision was also too late as they still had not configured the aircraft for a go-around and their altitude was already too low.
Aircraft
The McDonnell Douglas DC-9 was manufactured in 1972, with 2 Pratt & Whitney JT8D-9A engines, and the serial number 47562/685. It entered the Nigerian registration on 12 June 2003, was owned by JAT Airways, and operated by Sosoliso Airlines Ltd. The aircraft certificate was released on 17 March 2005 and would have been due to another check on 27 June 2006. The aircraft was described as airworthy at the time of the accident.
Passengers and crews
Flight 1145 was carrying 103 passengers and 7 crew members. The majority of those on board were children aged between 12 - 16 year old who were travelling home for Christmas holiday. Among the passengers were about sixty secondary school students from Loyola Jesuit College in the Federal Capital Territory region of Nigeria. At first Loyola Jesuit College students from Port Harcourt traveled between school and their homes via buses using the roads. Rising crime along roads during the 1990s, however, made parents believe that road travel was too dangerous. In 2001, when Sosoliso Airlines began services between Port Harcourt and Abuja, parents placed their children on the flights.
Also on the flight were two volunteers for Medecins Sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders, one of whom was an American and the other was a French citizen, en route to work in Port Harcourt, as well as televangelist Bimbo Odukoya, pastor of the Fountain of Life Church. The National President of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), Uche Marcus Okoro who was returning from a union meeting, was also on the passenger list.
The captain was Benjamin Adekunle Adebayo, a 48-year-old Nigerian with a total flying experience of 10,050 hours with 1,900 of them on the DC-9. He had his last simulator training at Pan Am International Flight Academy in Miami on 7 July 2005. The first officer was Gerad Yakubu Andan, a 33-year-old Ghanaian with a total flying experience of 920 hours which 670 hours were on the type. He had his last simulator training in August 2005 with a result of 'satisfying'.
Crash
Flight 1145 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Nigeria's capital Abuja to Port Harcourt, the capital of Rivers State. The aircraft departed from Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport at 12:25 p.m with 103 passengers and 7 crew members, with Captain Adebayo (48) as the pilot who was in control of the aircraft and First Officer Andan (33) as his co-pilot. The flight was uneventful until its final approach in Port Harcourt.
About from the airport, the aircraft contacted controller for initial descent clearance and was cleared by controller to descent to . The aircraft continued its descent until 13:00, when the crew asked the controller for the weather condition at the airport. The controller told the crews that there was no precipitation and that there were scattered cumulonimbus clouds in the area. The crew acknowledged the report and continued their descent.