Ministry of Aviation has directed Starbow, a Ghanaian Domestic Airline, to employ qualified personnel and review all of its operational procedures to avoid further incidents in the future.
This directive comes as a result of the findings by a specialized investigative report brought in by a five member committee that was setup by the ministry in December to ascertain what led to the Starbow excursion on the runway in November 2017.
Starbow was further told to retrain all its crew on cockpit resource management and aborted take-off procedures.
The Minister, Madam Cecilia Dapaah, disclosed the details of the investigative report to Parliament in answer to an urgent question raised by the Member of Parliament, Hon. Kwame Agbodzah on the circumstances leading to the airline’s incident in November 2017.
The findings of the report hinted at two major causes of the incident. Firstly that, there was the loss of situational awareness on the part of the cockpit crew and secondly, the crew failed to execute the correct procedures in aborting a take-off.
The Minister, also advised the Ghana Airport Company Limited to review its standard operational procedures and responses in the event of an accident.
Furthermore, the committee recommended to the management of the Air Traffic control at GCAA to ensure that all staff members are familiar with all requirements of accidents and incidents that happen.
The GCAA is also expected to establish a standard preliminary investigative team with approved procedures including medical tests for victims of accidents.
Starbow plane skids off runway
Starbow, the first airline to bring a dual configuration aircraft of a 94/97 seating capacity (business and economy seats) into the ghanaian aviation industry was involved in an incident at the Kotoka International Airport today 25th November 2017 at 1220hrs.
A newly acquired aircraft (ATR 72-500 series) with registration number 9G-SBF skid off the runway into the perimeter fence due to a crosswind caused by bad weather.
The aircraft had 63 passengers and 5 crew members departing Accra to Kumasi with flight no S9 104.
According to the airline and civil aviation authorities, 5 passengers sustained minor injuries and were sent to the airport clinic but have been discharged as at the time of this release.
This ‘force majeure or vis major‘ could not permit the airline to deliver its services to its customers leading to fear and panic among the passengers, families and ghanaians at large.
Source: gh-aviation
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