Private jet crew overwrote black boxes after Delta road landing, NSIB says

Investigators in Nigeria face a significant hurdle in determining the cause of a private jet's emergency landing on a road in Delta State, as the flight crew reportedly overwrote the aircraft's crucial black box data. The Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB) disclosed that the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) and Flight Data Recorder (FDR) were altered between the incident and the aircraft's subsequent departure to Lagos.

Capt Alex Badeh Jr., Director-General of the NSIB, explained that while this overwriting complicates the investigation, his team is utilizing other available evidence to reconstruct the sequence of events. "That made things a little difficult, but we still worked with other things to figure out what happened," Badeh stated. He noted that the FDR of the specific aircraft also malfunctioned, further complicating data recovery.

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I don’t think airlines are doing anything (to hamper investigation into accidents or incidents) deliberately, at least not to my knowledge. But one thing is: the FDR and CVR being overwritten a lot of time. That is an issue that we face. I think that is something we faced with the last one in Asaba.

The incident occurred on June 10 when a private aircraft carrying four crew members landed on a road in the Ogwashi-Uku area, near Asaba. Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, had previously labeled the event a security breach, confirming the crew's custody by the Department of State Services (DSS).

Badeh mentioned that the aircraft, registered in November and operating under a Part 91 certificate for private, non-profit use, was not obligated to maintain the 26 hours of cockpit voice recording typically required for commercial operations. This regulatory difference contributed to the challenge of obtaining comprehensive data from the flight.

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They took off and flew back to Lagos and overwrote everything that happened when they landed in Asaba. That aeroplane, being a November registered and operating on a parts 91 certificate, which is a not for profit, just for private operation, not for charter hire, they weren’t subject to the rule that requires them to have the 26 hours cockpit voice recorder… Between when the incident happened and when they took off and went back to Lagos, they overwrote everything that happened. That made things a little difficult, but we still worked with other things to figure out what happened. We are still working with other parts to get the data for that. The FDR of that aeroplane did not work as well. I am not sure what happened.