On December 11th, two Boeing 737s collided with one another at the airport of Benin City in Nigeria. With both aircraft belonging to Nigerian operators, one aircraft was operated by Max Air while the other was operated by Air Peace. While the status of the Max Air jet is unknown, we do know that the 737 belonging to Air Peace had to be grounded, with passengers re-accommodated on a replacement aircraft.
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The events of December 11th
On December 11th, Air Peace posted a press statement to its Facebook page. The incident report noted that an accident had occurred around 14:00 at Benin Airport involving one of its 737s and another 737 belonging to Max Air.
It stated that taxiing Max Air aircraft, 5N-ADB rammed its right wing into parked Air Peace aircraft 5N-BUQ. The Air Peace jet was boarding Abuja-bound passengers at the time. The airline goes on to say that the impact damaged the left elevator of 5N-BUQ, “rendering the aircraft grounded and unserviceable.”
Air Peace reported that the aircraft’s passengers disembarked, and a replacement aircraft was dispatched to operate the flight to Abuja.
Considering the aircraft was reportedly boarding passengers at the time, the incident report failed to confirm if there were any injuries suffered by crew or passengers as it made no mention in the negative nor affirmative.
About the impacted aircraft
While no other information was available regarding the incident, we can go over the histories of the two aircraft as documented by Planespotters.net.
The Air Peace jet, registered 5N-BUQ, is a nearly 28-year-old Boeing 737-300. The aircraft also has MSN 27910 and Line Number 2873. This jet started its service life with Czech carrier Fischer Air in 1997. The charter and tour operator ceased operations in 2005, leaving the jet in storage for five years. Following this, the jet had stints with several other operators, including Air Nigeria and Pakistan’s Air Indus.
On the other side of the situation is a 737-300 from Max Air. The aircraft, registered 5N-ADB, is about 22 and a half years old and first flew with Deutsche BA before moving on to DBA and Air Berlin. The aircraft then flew for an impressive 12 years with Latvia’s airBaltic- only to be replaced by the carrier’s incoming fleet of Airbus A220-300s.
The 737-300 went from airBaltic to Max Air in February of 2021.
While many commenting on Air Peace’s Facebook page had less than positive things to say about the airline and its recent news, it does appear from the carrier’s statement that the incident was no fault of their own.
Indeed, when looking at the facts presented in the incident report, it would appear that the Max Air jet was the cause of the collision. This would either be at the hands of the Max Air pilots or airport ground crews (if being towed).
Do you have any thoughts on this incident? Let us know by leaving a comment.
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