Anxiety as Nigeria launches probe after plane lands in wrong city
There is anxiety in Nigeria’s aviation industry after a domestic plane landed in Asaba city instead of Abuja from Lagos.
Abuja, Nov. 28, 2023
There is anxiety in Nigeria’s aviation industry after a domestic plane landed in Asaba city instead of Abuja from Lagos.
According to one of the passengers, the plane may have taken off with the wrong flight plan.
Sharing the pictures of irate passengers, a Nigerian man mocked the airline for landing them in another State as the flight took off a second time.
The incident involved a United Nigeria Airline flight NUA 0506 with over 232 passengers from Lagos, en route to Abuja.
Authorities in Nigeria have since launched investigations.
Aviation and Aerospace Minister Festus Keyamo said on Tuesday that he had directed the Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB) to release the results of the investigation on the incident within 10 days.
Speaking in Abuja on November 28th, Keyamo confirmed that a flight operating from Murtala Mohammed Airport in Lagos en route to Abuja on Sunday was diverted to Asaba International Airport, Delta state.
Keyamo said the ministry was taking every step to ensure the safety of the lives of Nigerians travelling by air.
According to him, the transcript from the tower of Nigeria Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) indicated that the pilot took off from Lagos headed to Asaba instead of Abuja.
'No weather problem'
“There was no weather problem, NiMet’s DG is here. It was a question of wet lease plane. Pilots and the cabin crew were foreigners,” he stated.
“They were not familiar with the Nigerian terrain. So, it was purely an issue of in-house administrative issues. We have agreed, from now (on), any wet lease coming into Nigeria must have a Nigerian pilot and Nigerians as its cabin crew,” he said.
The Director General of Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Musa Nuhu, has said the authority also started an investigation into the incident.
“The authority wishes to reassure the travelling public that it will leave no stone unturned as it has always done in the past to ensure the continued safety of the aviation industry,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mr Achilleus-Chud Uchegbu, Head Corporate Communications of United Nigeria Airlines, in a statement said the flight which took off in Lagos en route to Abuja on Sunday was temporarily diverted to the Asaba International Airport, Delta citing poor weather.
“At all material time, the pilots of the aircraft were aware of the temporary diversion and were properly briefed,” said Mr Uchegbu.
He went on, “However, a wrong announcement was made by cabin crew upon landing in Asaba creating confusion among the passengers.”
“Nigeria my country. We departed Lagos about an hour ago to Abuja, and upon arrival, the cabin crew confidently announced that we’ve arrived (in) Abuja, only for us to realise that we landed in Asaba. Apparently, our pilot was given (the) wrong flight plan from Lagos. We are departing Asaba now, I pray we don’t land in Osogbo next,” he wrote.
Mansaah Musa penned: “Nothing in this country will shock me again.”
