The third, Michael Sparks, was the chief pilot for the overseas contracts. He quit Nationair about two months after the crash and is currently living in British Columbia, telling friends not to disclose his whereabouts.

Barayan, the Saudi official, confirmed that the Nationair flight out of Accra was running behind their schedule. That's why, he said, the decided not to delay the flight to fix the tires. "So, they just decided to continue," he said.

Barayan said a decision to change a plane's tire is very subjective. "You could look at it like driving your car," he said. "Let's say from Montreal to Ottawa and back and one guy says 'Well, why don't we change the tire?' and then the other guy says, "Oh! That can take us to Ottawa and back, and then when we get back, we'll change it.'"
Anyone else have a problem with the Vice President of a country's Aviation Agency comparing the tires on a car to those on an aircraft carrying hundreds of people in extreme conditions?

Nationair president Robert Obadia said if the tires had been unsafe the crew would have changed them.

"Even if someone was negligent in Accra, which was not the case, and even if someone was negligent in Jedda, which was not the case, then the crew who took the flight the morning of the crash would have refused (to fly the plane) and would have asked for a tire change," Obadia said.
Not surprisingly, the final outcome would prove Obadia wrong. The company was found negligent. The aircraft was not fit to fly on July 11, that two under-flated tires blew on takeoff, and that a Nationair mechanic falsified documents to hide low tire pressure. "It is clear that the aircraft operated a series of flights in an unairworthy condition and that at least some flight engineers knew this."

The crew loaded the four spare wheels into the hold, and at 4:47 a.m. on July 10, took off for Jedda.

A hot sun scorched the runway as the DC-8 touched down around noon in the Saudi capital, completing a 6-hour flight.

Exhausted crew members left the plane and checked into the nearby Sands Hotel. They left behind two mechanics who went to work on a long list of repairs that would take about seven hours. They had to prepare the plane for an 8 p.m. flight to Sokoto, Nigeria.

Why the tires were not changed in Jedda is uncertain. One witness says head mechanic Philippe told him of his frustration at not being able to obtain a nitrogen tank.

But mechanic Calombaris denied they were looking for nitrogen. He would not comment further, tother than to say the crew wanted to change the tires at some point but the tirees were "fully servicable but coming close to our limits."

Saudi aviation chief Barayan said he has no details on the nitrogen issue. He promised to ask his investigators about it. Later he said he could not comment on it.

Jedda's King Abdulaziz airport is modern and well equipped, and Barayan said that nitrogen tanks normally would have been available if they wanted them.He added that "sometimes you run into problems" if you try to obtain equipment without making previous arrangements. "This is not a backyard garage," he said.