Max Air Boeing 737 Suffers Hard Landing at Abuja Airport

A Max Air Boeing 737-3H4 was involved in a hard, or crash, landing at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja on 7 May 2023, one of a string of runway-related incidents involving Nigerian domestic carriers over the course of the year. Details of the exact circumstances of the landing were not immediately released, though the aircraft was withdrawn from service for inspection following the occurrence.

The Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau opened an inquiry into the incident, as it does for any occurrence involving a commercial aircraft in Nigerian airspace. As part of that process, investigators later discovered that Max Air's cockpit voice recorder data from the flight had not been preserved, with the airline found to have been overwriting recorder data in a manner that contravened Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority regulations requiring the preservation of flight data following a reportable occurrence.

A Wider Pattern of Scrutiny

The finding placed Max Air's compliance practices under renewed scrutiny at a time when Nigeria's domestic airline sector was already grappling with an ageing fleet, fuel-cost pressures, and, for some carriers, aircraft availability constraints that limited their ability to withdraw individual airframes for lengthy maintenance without disrupting schedules. Cockpit voice recorder preservation is a basic requirement of post-incident investigation protocol internationally, and lapses of this kind typically draw regulatory attention independent of the severity of the underlying occurrence.

The Abuja hard landing was one of at least two runway-related occurrences involving Nigerian carriers within a matter of weeks that May and June, following an Aero Contractors Boeing 737 emergency return to Abuja on 14 June and, later in the year, a Max Air flight and a ValueJet aircraft each experiencing separate ground incidents.

NCAA Oversight Continues

The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority has continued to monitor Max Air's compliance with safety and recordkeeping regulations following the incident, as part of its broader oversight of the domestic carrier fleet ahead of an International Civil Aviation Organization safety audit later that year.