Created Sunday, May 7th 2023 19:57Z, last updated Wednesday, Jun 14th 2023 18:26Z
A Max Air Boeing 737-400, registration 5N-MBD performing a flight from Yola to Abuja (Nigeria) with 144 passengers and 6 crew, burst at least one tyre on departure from Yola and performed an emergency landing into Abuja. The aircraft came to a stop with both left hand main gear tyres burst. The aircraft became disabled on the runway, a small gear fire ensued which was extinguished by airport fire services.
On Jun 14th 2023 Nigeria's AIB released their preliminary report summarizing the sequence of events:
The Pilot was the Pilot Monitoring (PM) and the Co-Pilot was the
Pilot Flying (PF).
According to the flight crew statement, after takeoff the landing gear was left extended for 3 minutes because of the high temperature on ground.
At 14:08 h, Nigerian Air Force personnel from the Air Force Hangar close to runway 35, reported to Yola Control Tower that an object appearing like a tyre fell off from the departing NGL1649. The DATCO promptly informed the Pilot of NGL1649 as well as Kano Area Control (ACC) and Abuja Tower.
According to cabin crew account, the flight purser (L1) and another cabin crew (L2) informed the Pilot that a passenger at seat row 24 informed them about seeing a wheel fall off from the airplane.
According to the Pilot, Yola tower said they would carry out runway inspection and report findings. The instruments and landing gear indications were normal.
At 14:18 h, NGL1649 reported contact with Kano ACC and was asked to continue with the ACC.
At 14:27 h, NGL1649 contacted Abuja Radar and was given clearance as “NGL1649 clear to ABC FL240 expect Radar vectoring ILS Approach Runway 22 QNH 1011 contact time 1327, report release by Kano”. NGL1649 acknowledged.
At 14:51 h Yola ATC informed Abuja Tower about the earlier report and to inform NGL1649 that nothing was found on the ground.
At 14:52 h, NGL1649 contacted Abuja Tower and was cleared to continue approach and to report 4 miles.
At 14:53 h, Tower cleared NGL1649 to land with “Surface-wind calm runway 22”.
According to the Pilot, the landing was normal but after the airplane started decelerating he noticed the wing port side was dropping lower than normal, he applied full aileron control to keep the wing from dropping until the lift decayed. Thrust reverser and minimal braking was used to stop the aircraft on the runway.
At 14:57 h, Abuja ATC informed NGL1649 “be advised, it appears you have smoke around your aircraft. We have called fire watch room.”
The aircraft came to a stop between Link A5 and A6 about 2900 m from the threshold of runway 22. There was no injury to passengers and crew.
The NAIB reported: "On the 08th May, 2023 the search team at Yola airport discovered the object that fell off from the aircraft as the No. 1 main wheel assembly. It was located by the personnel of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) about 1000 m from threshold of runway 35."
