He said the investigation so far shows the crew fully intended to change the two tires that blew the day before the crash for "precautionary reasons",not because they had reached their limit of use.

A Nationair Defence department laboratory in Ottawa is still testing fragments from the DC-8 jet's tires to try to determine why they blew.

During the past seven months, The Gazette has pieced together events surrounding the tradedy trhough interviews with more than two dozen sources, most of them Nationair employees who were in Saudi Arabia and who asked that we not publish their names for fear of being fired by Nationair. This is fairly common fear in the industry, and in fact, Nationair routinely threatened employees with dismissal. Including some pilots who would not normally have flown an aircraft had they not been threatened. (Most pilots will deny this of course)

The Gazette's inquiry shows that Nationair was seriously behind schedule on it's Jedda contracts and that they urgency to catch up was a key factor in the decision not to change the tires in Accra.

Documents and interviews with employees show that Nationair has a record of late flights, delayed repairs, insufficient spare parts and of generally flying on the cheap.

Barayan said that Nationair has deferred and delayed maintenance "for economical reasons."

Nationair was in Saudi Arabia to fulfill a series of contract to ferry Muslim pilgrims from Jedda to their homes in Africa. The Muslims were participating in the hajj, a sacred pilgrimage to the city of Mecca, birthplace of the prophet Mohammed. Mecca is located 60 kilometers east of Jedda.

The Gazette inquiry shows that Nationair's flights out of Jedda began July 4, and soon ran into trouble.

On July 6, the DC-8 was briefy gounded in Guinea with a wing problem. It's problems quickly worsened. That day and again on July 7 its weather radar failed. The plane was forced to wait in Accra, Ghana for replacement parts, prompting Nationair to cancel one Jedda-Accra-Jedda flight rotation.

Crew members lounged around the pool at Accra's Novotel Hotel. Two of those people were Captain William Allan and his co-pilot, Kent Davidge. Sipping beer, the two men started arguing, one witness said. Another witness said that Davidge later complained to her that Allan never listened to him in the cockpit. The two men died trying to land their doomed aircraft.

During this time, according to one Nationair employee, the crew tested tire pressure and found it was low in the first tire that blew. But the witness does not know if mechanics added more nitrogen.

Nitrogen is used to inflate plane tires because it is more stable than air and does not expand or contract with temperature changes.

One of Nationair's three crews servicing the Jedda contract flew the plane on July 8 to Jedda to pick up another load of pilgrims. Chief mechanic Philippe and mechanic Jim Calombaris remained in Accra to make preparations to change the tires that eventually would blow. The planned to carry out the task when the plane returned from Jedda the next day.