The plane, which left Ibadan around 8am, had on board a former President of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Mr. Lanre Ogundipe, an officer in the Accountant-General of the Federation’s office, Mr. Demola Akinlabi, and 55 others.
Ogundipe, who spoke to our correspondent from Abuja on the incident, said the aircraft was in good condition before the windshield broke, adding that a major tragedy was miraculously averted.
“We started well but midway around Minna in Niger State, the pilot made a detour to Lagos, which was strange. We later got to know that the windshield broke and the flight could not continue
for long,” he said.
for long,” he said.
Ogundipe added that the passangers had to be evacuated and put in another aircraft, which arrived Abuja in the afternoon.
However, the Managing Director, Overland Airways, Capt. Edward Boyo, told our correspondent that what happened was not a major incident but a logical discretion by the pilot to rectify a faulty pane.
He said, “It is not true that our aircraft made an emergency landing in Lagos because of the broken windshield. It was not true also that it made a detour in Minna. The information was wrong. The plane left our hangar in Lagos for Ibadan today and was on its way to Abuja when the pilot discovered that that the outer pane had cracked.
Confirming the incident, the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency said in a statement that the domestic flight 1170 operated by Overland with ATR-42 aircraft diverted from Ibadan en-route Abuja to Lagos following a reported cracked windshield.
No comments:
Post a Comment