Plane crashes from around the world.

Part 106: Saudi Arabia

This plane crash takes us to the middle eastern nation of Saudi Arabia, which is located next to the following countries: Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, Yemen, Oman and the United Arab Emirates.

WARNINGS OF A PLANE CRASH

Pictured above is the accident aircraft, photographed in 1989.

Nigeria Airways Flight 2120 was a chartered passenger flight from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to Sokoto, Nigeria, on the 11th of July 1991, which caught fire shortly after takeoff from King Abdulaziz International Airport (IATA: JED, ICAO: OEJN) and crashed while attempting to return for an emergency landing, killing all 247 passengers and 14 crew members on board. The investigation traced the fire to underinflated tires which overheated and burst during takeoff, and subsequently discovered that a project manager had prevented those tires from being replaced because the aircraft was behind schedule. The aircraft was a Douglas DC-8 operated by Nationair Canada for Nigeria Airways. Flight 2120 is the deadliest accident involving a DC-8 and the deadliest aviation disaster involving a Canadian airline.

The aircraft involved was a Douglas DC-8-61, C-GMXQ (Charlie- Golf Mike Xray Quebec), owned by the Canadian company Nolisair, usually operated by Nationair Canada. The aircraft was manufactured in 1968. At the time of the accident, it was being wet-leased to Nigeria Airways, which had in turn subleased it to Holdtrade Services to transport Nigerian pilgrims to and from Mecca.

William Allan, the 47-year-old captain, a former Royal Canadian Air Force pilot, had logged 10,700 flight hours and 1,000 hours in type. Kent Davidge, the 36-year-old first officer, had logged 8,000 flight hours, of which 550 hours were in type. Victor Fehr, the 46-year-old flight engineer, had logged 7,500 flight hours, of which 1,000 hours were in type.

The aircraft took off from King Abdulaziz International Airport bound for Sadiq Abubakar III International Airport (IATA: SKO, ICAO: DNSO) in Sokoto, but problems were reported shortly thereafter. Unknown to the crew, the aircraft had caught fire during departure, and though the fire was not obvious, since it started in an area without fire warning systems, the effects were numerous. Pressurization failed quickly, and the crew was deluged with nonsensical warnings caused by fire-related circuit failures. In response to the pressurization failure, Allan decided to remain at 2,000 ft (610 m), but the flight was cleared to 3,000 ft (910 m) as a result of the controller mistaking Flight 2120 for a Saudia flight that was also reporting pressurization problems. This mix-up, a result of Captain Allan mistakenly identifying as "Nationair 2120" rather than "Nigerian 2120," lasted for three minutes, but was ultimately found not to have had any effect on the outcome.

Amidst this, First Officer Davidge, who had been flying C-GMXQ out, reported that he was losing hydraulics, prompting the crew to request a return to the airport for an emergency landing. The flight crew only became aware of the fire when in-flight director Kay Smith rushed into the cockpit reporting "smoke in the back ... real bad". Allan informed Smith of the situation on the flight crew's end and, in reply to something not intelligible on the tape, told her "Yeah, just tell [the passengers] we'll be returning to, ah, Jeddah." Shortly afterwards, Davidge reported that he had lost ailerons, forcing Allan to take control; as Allan took over, the cockpit voice recorder failed. At this moment, the air traffic controller realized that Flight 2120 was not following the flight plan and contacted it to tell the crew to return to the plan, only for Allan to respond that he was unable to climb due to flight control problems. Realising his mistake and that Flight 2120 was in trouble, the controller began directing it towards the runway. Allan subsequently contacted air traffic control multiple times, declaring an emergency, reporting flight control difficulties, and telling the controller the plane was on fire.