Plane Crash: Fact Finding Committee Inaugurated�Mills Visits Accident Scene

A 5 member independent committee has been set up to investigate what exactly led to an Allied Air Boeing 727 cargo plane with 5N-BJN embossed on it, overshooting the runway at the Kotoka International Airport and smashing through the airport's perimeter fence leaving in its wake littered bodies of passengers. At about 7:10pm on Saturday, flight number DHV 111 operating from Lagos to Accra, somehow when landing, skidded off the runway, broke through the perimeter fence and went across the 37-Burma Camp road near the El-Wak Sports stadium and the Hajj Village, where Muslims in the country stay before they journey to Mecca. About 10 people lost their lives when the aircraft rammed into a commercial 207 Benz minivan, sweeping it off the road in the process. The committee, which is chaired by Captain Alec Grant Sam, will among other things investigate the extent of the damage and also the cause of the accident. Other members of the committee are Messrs Ben Asare Botuo, Ben Sapaku, Eric Awusi and a representative of the Air Traffic Controller The Committee has 30 days to present its report. Preliminary investigations reveal that the Nigerian cargo jet landed in a pool of water during heavy rains before overshooting the runway. Managing Director of Ghana Airports Company, Doreen Owusu Fianko told the media during a visit to the crash site by President John Atta Mills that "what we know for now is that it was raining at the time and the plane landed in a pool of water and that created some challenges to the pilot." In a related development, President John Evans Atta Mills wants management of the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) to put in place adequate measures to forestall a similar disaster from occurring.