§ Mr. Tilneyasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether he will undertake to make a statement before the prorogation of Parliament concerning the air crash between Enugu and Calabar on 5th February last; what steps are being taken to make the aeroplanes of the West African Airways Corporation airworthy; 108W and whether the Corporation services have now been fully resumed.
§ Mr. Lennox-BoydYes. A Board of Investigation was convened on the 10th February, 1955, by the Government of the Federation of Nigeria to inquire into the cause of the accident. In addition to the Director of Civil Aviation in West Africa and a senior member of the staff of the Department of Civil Aviation in Nigeria, the Board contained a senior investigating officer from the Accidents Investigation Branch of the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation and the Resident Surveyor of the Air Registration Board. They were also assisted by and took evidence from expert advisers from the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough and from the staff of the Bristol Aeroplane Company.
The Board concluded that the accident was due to the structural failure of the port mainplane of the aircraft, and that neither the West African Airways Corporation nor the operating personnel of the aircraft were in any way to blame for the accident. The cause of the structural failure will now be investigated at the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough to which the necessary parts of the wreckage have been transported for that purpose. The Government of the Federation of Nigeria has decided to publish the Report of the Board of Investigation, and this will be done as soon as possible.
For the past eight years a surveyor of the United Kingdom Air Registration Board has been employed in Lagos to ensure that the aircraft of the West African Airways Corporation are maintained to United Kingdom standards of airworthiness. Since the accident on the 5th February, all the Bristol Wayfarer aircraft owned by the West African Airways Corporation have been withdrawn from service for modification to meet the new requirements specified by the Air Registration Board and the Bristol Aircraft Company, and they will not resume service until those modifications have been completed.
By employing chartered aircraft of other types to supplement the remainder of its fleet the West African Airways Corporation have resumed operation of 90 per cent. of the services which they were operating before the accident.