TheCable

A plane belonging to Dana Air lost one of its engines mid-air on Friday, forcing it to make emergency landing at the Murtala Muhammed airport in Lagos.

The aircraft was heading to Port Harcourt in Rivers state, when the incident happened.

The airline said bird strike was responsible for the incident which left hundreds of its passengers stranded.

Bird strike is a collision between a bird and an aircraft which is airborne.

In a statement, Kingsley Ezenwa, spokesman of airline, said the safety of passengers remained the major priority of Dana Air.

He revealed that engineers were checking the aircraft to ascertain whether to completely change the engine or remove some blades.

“On 21st of April, one of our aircraft with registration number 5N-SRI operating our 11am flight from Lagos to Port Harcourt, had an air return due bird strike during take-off from Lagos,” he said.

“Our captain took a professional decision and returned to the Lagos airport.

“As per standard safety procedure, which is the hallmark of our operation, our pilot returned to base.

“The aircraft is currently being evaluated by our engineers to determine the effect of the bird strike on the affected engine.”

After a few hours, the airline made an alternative provision for passengers who were on board the faulty aircraft, and they arrived at their destination safely.

The development comes less than 24 hours after aircraft belonging to Air Peace collided at the Lagos airport.

Earlier in the week, an Aero Contractors plane from Port Harcourt was engulfed in smoke, sparking tension among passengers.