BY Taiwo George
About 120 passengers aboard Aero Contractor Airline Flight 180 from Lagos to Kaduna escaped death late Friday when the plane developed technical fault mid-air.
The aircraft suddenly lost altitude 20 minutes after departure, forcing it to wobble in the air for over one hour before eventually diverting to Abuja.
“The plane lost altitude 20 minutes after take off. No more oxygen and we had to make use of the oxygen mask. We saw smoke outside of the plane, probably coming from the engine compartment,” Ishaq Akintola, a university don, one of the passengers, told New Mail.
“At this time, the whole plane was thrown into commotion. People screamed, some fainted. Prayers upon prayers were offered. Some shouted Allah, others Jesus.”
Akintola said amid the commotion, the cabin crew announced to the relief of passengers that the plane would be diverted to Abuja.
“While the pilot was making the announcement of the flight diversion, I noticed that his voice was trembling,” he said.
“He told us that Abuja was 120 miles away and that we would land in 25 minutes. But we were not sure we would make it. In fact, I quickly recited the Kalimah (The Quranic invocation of the oneness of Allah), believing that the end had come.”
He said that the plane touched down in Abuja around 9:00pm and the officials of the airline told the passengers that the fault would be rectified within a short period in order for the aircraft to proceed to Kaduna, its original destination.
Akintola said virtually all the passengers turned down the offer of “flying in the same aircraft that was divinely saved from crashing”.
“As am talking to you, I am now in a taxi taking me to Kaduna. They asked how many of us wanted to disembark and almost everybody came out,” he said.
The airline confirmed the development, saying the plane would be repaired.
“Aero confirms that there was depressurisation in the aircraft cabin, leading to the dropping of oxygen mask. And since Aero has a maintenance facility in Abuja, the flight to Kaduna was diverted to Abuja this evening to fix the problem,” read a statement on its website.
This website uses cookies.