Asaba highway landing: Jet’s black box overwritten, says NSIB

The Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB) has disclosed that the black box of the private jet that crashed on a highway in Asaba had its flight data recorder overwritten before the NSIB took possession of the aircraft. The incident occurred on July 10 when the Bombardier Challenger 601 operated by VMO Aero missed the runway and landed on a concrete road in Ogwashi-Uku, Delta State.

The NSIB revealed that the aircraft was flown back to Lagos before investigators could reach the scene, resulting in the loss of crucial flight data. The pilot had taken off from Lagos without clearance from Air Traffic Control, which led to the overwritten flight data. The NSIB's Director-General, Alex Badeh, emphasized that reducing the Bureau's share of the Ticket Sales Charge would severely impact its operations as it handles multimodal safety investigations.