A herd of cattle strayed onto the runway of Akure Airport this morning, preventing an Air Peace flight from Lagos from landing.
The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, has apologised to Air Peace Airlines and its passengers for the incident.
FAAN issued the apology in a statement signed by Henrietta Yakubu, the general manager of Corporate Affairs, FAAN, on Saturday, February 17, 2018.
Yakubu said the Air Peace flight, which left Lagos for Akure could not land immediately as some cows strayed onto the runway of the airport.
She said :”However, normalcy was restored quickly, as officers of the aviation security department quickly dispersed the cows from the runway and the aircraft was cleared for landing.
“The authority will like to assure travellers and the general public that efforts are already ongoing to close the gap that aided this incident.
Chris Iwarah, the corporate communications manager of Air Peace, also confirmed the incident.
Iwarah said: “Flight P4 7002 from Lagos had to delay landing into Akure Airport on Saturday when the pilot-in-command sighted cows on the runway at about 12.15pm.
“On being alerted by control tower, aviation security personnel of the FAAN quickly intervened and cleared the runway.
“The flight was eventually cleared to land after about seven minutes. Our guests on board were all calm while the delay lasted.”
He said the aircraft departed for Lagos at about 1.06pm with full escort from FAAN security personnel.
Passengers aboard a Dana Airline flight, on Wednesday, February 7, 2018, expressed sudden uncontrollable fear when the exit door of the aircraft fell off upon landing.
A passenger, Ola Brown, who took to his twitter page to vent his frustration, said the experience was scary. He further narrated that the exit door of the aircraft was unstable all through the flight, adding that it fell off as soon as the aircraft landed.
He tweeted; “Flew Dana. Exit door was unstable throughout flight. As we touched down, it fell off. Scary stuff,” “I was closer to the front so when I heard the sound, (I) thought it was an explosion. (I) couldn’t quite comprehend that it (the door) had just fallen off” he wrote on twitter.
Another passengers on the flight, Dapo Sanwo, said the door panel was loose all through the flight, a situation he described as an indication of “lack of maintenance.”
Details of the incident and its causes were not immediately clear. When contacted, the corporate communication desk of Dana Air said it would need to be briefed by its engineers before reacting to the development.
“We need to also get the engineers to give their report,” a staff of the airline’s corporate communications department said.
