Story Of Bellview Airlines Flight 210 Plane Crash That Happened On 22 October 2005

Published April 7, 2023 at 1:07 PM

Bellview Airlines Flight 210 was a scheduled Nigerian domestic passenger flight of a Boeing 737-200 airliner from Lagos to Abuja, operated by Lagos-based Bellview Airlines.

On 22 October 2005, the aircraft nose-dived and crashed at high speed just a few minutes after take-off, killing all 117 people on board.

The investigation of the crash was hampered by the lack of physical evidence on the crash site,which was caused by the aircraft’s high speed during impact and by looting afterwards. The flight recorders were not recovered and forensic analysis of the pilots could not be conducted as such, the investigation was not able to conclude the cause of the crash. The crash of Flight 210 was the first crash among strings of aircraft accidents that rocked Nigeria in 2005 and 2006. In response, then-President Olusegun Obasanjo vowed to overhaul the aviation sector.

The aircraft was carrying 111 passengers and 6 crew members, most of whom were thought to be Nigerians. There were also at least 10 Ghanaians, 2 Britons, 2 Gambians and one each from Germany, Mali and South Africa.

United States officials also confirmed the presence of a U.S military officer on board the flight. There was also a Sierra Leone citizen aboard. The flight was popular among Nigerians and expatriates shuttling between the two cities among the passengers were Cheick Oumar Diarra, a General from Mali and Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) deputy executive secretary,Waziri Mohammed, Chairman of Nigeria Railway Corporation and a close aide to incumbent President Obasanjo, and Nigerian Postmaster General Abubakar Musa Argungu. Usman Umar, a member of local council who was also the chairman of Nigeria’s Board of Directors of the National Programme on Immunisation, was also on board the flight.

The cockpit crew consisted of Captain Imasuen Lambert, First Officer Eshun Ernest and Flight Engineer Steve Sani. Captain Lambert joined Bellview Airlines in October 2004. He had logged a total of 13,429 hours of flight experience, including 1,053 hours on the Boeing 737.

Lambert had worked for Imani Aviation, Okada Air, Gas Air and Kabo Air. He was out of active flying for 12 years, between 1992 and 2004, following injuries he suffered after being the victim of an attempted robbery. CONTINUE READING

First Officer Eshun Ernest was a Ghanaian national whose wife Sarah was also on board.He was less experienced than Captain Lambert, having a total of 762 flight hours, with 451 of them on the Boeing 737.

The plane clashed at Lisa Village, Ogun State, near Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, Nigeria.

The impact left a 9-metre-deep (30 ft) crater and the aircraft was completely destroyed. There were no major parts of the aircraft that had been left intact by the impact. All 117 passengers and crews on board were killed