News on Top "74 passengers escape air crash, after Abuja-bound plane develops fault 15 minutes after take-off"

News on Top 

Another Air Disaster was averted on Sunday in Lagos as an Abuja-bound aircraft made a dramatic return to Lagos when one of its engines developed a mechanical fault mid-air.

On board the aircraft which belongs to Med-View Airline were 73 passengers including Mr. Donald Ojogo, the newly appointed Politics Editor, Abuja, of the Independent Newspapers Limited, publishers of Daily Independent, Saturday Independent and Sunday Independent.

The Lagos-Abuja bound flight, VL2104, scheduled for 12 noon on Sunday

had taken off at exactly 12.15 pm, 15 minutes behind schedule.
Unconfirmed report claimed there was a massive bang in one of the two engines of the aircraft mid air.

When contacted, Head of Flight Operations, MedView Airlines, Captain Henry Olawole Oke, affirmed that there was an incident on one of the airline’s aircraft en-route Lagos-Abuja, stressing that the pilot did not feel comfortable with the noise that he was hearing onboard the aircraft shortly after take-off, hence he had to make an air return.

According to Mr. Oke”I cannot specifically tell you what happened because I was not on the flight but I learnt that the captain was not comfortable with the noise that he was hearing from the aircraft, so he had to make an air return”
When asked if the noise or bang emanated from one of the two engines, Captain Oke said, ‘’there are several noises that can emanate from an aircraft and for now, we are not sure yet. You know, it could be from pressuration, it could be from the engines, it could be from the air condition, the hydrolic but we can’t say this was where the noise was coming from”

He added that there was no time the aircraft was in danger, saying the pilot flew the aircraft back safely and that they had not even gone up to Ibadan before the incident occurred and they had to come back to base.

Meanwhile, the General Manager, Med-View Airline, Mr. David Babatunde who also confirmed the incident pointed out that air return was normal in global aviation industry adding that the pilot took the best precautionary safety measures by returning to base.

Babatunde stated that the engineers were still looking at the cause of the incident and would submit their findings to the management and the regulatory authority (NCAA).

“On take-off, about 15 minutes in-flight, we had a bang on one of the two engines, an upsurge. So, the captain took a safety precautionary measure and decided to shut down the engine and return to base. The aircraft was heading to Abuja with 74 passengers.

But at exactly 12.30, about five minutes after the seat belt signs were put off, there was a loud bang at the engine side of the aircraft forcing it to drop in altitude even as it became unstable, swerving slowly and steadily in left and right directions for about two minutes.

The development elicited instant prayers, wailings and cries from the passengers, most of whom were women with the silence of the Aircraft Crew, especially the Pilot, further heightening tension in the plane.