LAGOS — A newly released preliminary report by the Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB) has exposed several infrastructure failures at the Asaba International Airport (DNAS) in Delta State.
The investigation follows a serious incident on June 10, 2026, where a US-registered Bombardier Challenger 601-3A executive jet mistakenly landed on a paved highway under construction outside the airport’s perimeter fence.
Among the NSIB’s disclosures is that the Asaba Tower voice recording system was completely unserviceable during the occurrence. This forced investigators to artificially reconstruct vital pilot-to-controller communications from manual operational logs, severely limiting the availability of recorded audio evidence
The NSIB report laid bare the blackout of critical ground-based navigational and safety aids at the Asaba Airport on the day of the serious incident. The bureau confirmed that the following vital systems were non-functional: MHz Instrument Glide Slope, Airfield Lighting Control Panel, Wind Velocity Indicator, and Asaba Tower Voice Recorder.
These systemic blind spots directly crippled the air traffic control environment precisely when the flight crew was battling intermittent, low-hanging cloud cover.
