A Hawker 800XP business jet operated by SWAT Technology Limited veered off the runway while landing at Port Harcourt International Airport on the night of 11 June 2015, after the flight crew misjudged the aircraft's position relative to the runway centreline in light rain.
The aircraft, registration N497AG, had departed Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja on a charter flight carrying three crew members and two passengers. On approach to Port Harcourt, the pilot flying mistook the brightly lit left runway edge lights for the centreline after a significant portion of the right-side edge lighting was found to be unserviceable. The aircraft touched down with its left main wheel in the grass and its right main wheel on the runway before the nose landing gear collapsed, bringing it to a stop on the runway surface.
No Injuries, Documented Contributing Factors
All five occupants disembarked without injury, and the aircraft was later towed clear of the runway. Investigators attributed the incident to what is known as a black hole effect, a form of visual disorientation that can occur on approach at night over dark or featureless terrain, compounded by inadequate crew resource management during the final stages of the approach and by the unserviceable runway edge lights on the right side of the runway.
A Reminder on Runway Infrastructure
The incident added to a pattern of runway-related occurrences at Nigerian airports involving both scheduled and charter operators, and reinforced longstanding concerns among industry stakeholders about the consistency of runway lighting maintenance at facilities outside the country's two busiest hubs in Lagos and Abuja.