Louis Ibah
An Ethiopian Airline aircraft with 393 passengers, including a former President, yesterday experienced what aviation officials described as “miss approach” during landing at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos.
Apart from the ex-leader, others identified passengers in the Ethiopian Boeing 777-300 aircraft include the Director General of Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), Ambassador Ayoola Olukanni and Prof Samson Tunde Adebayo, Director of Ports Inspection, National Agency For Food And Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), among others.
According to an official of the Federal Airport Authority (FAAN), who works at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport control towers, the aircraft, during landing, missed the runway alignment and had to go up again before finally landing without any incident.
The officials said what happened was not unusual in aviation industry as planes that miss the runway alignment aborts landing, circle and make fresh approach.
Spokesman for Ethiopian Airline, Mr. Ikechi Uko, while explaining the incident, told Daily Sun that the pilot while initiating landing into the Lagos airport had been informed by air traffic controllers of poor visibility on ground the airport and in line with standard safety procedures the pilot opted to abort the process.
“The aircraft did not touch the ground, neither did it overshoot the runway and there was no threat to any life,” Uko said, as reported by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
“It was raining as the aircraft was approaching Lagos. And what the pilot did was simply an aborted landing, a standard safety procedure, just as an air return, and pilots opt for this once the conditions to land is not safe. If the aircraft had landed or overshot the runway, then it could have crashed into something at the airport and be destroyed, thus leading to the shutdown of the airport, but the Lagos airport remains open and nothing is wrong with the aircraft. The pilot only waited for some minutes for the right conditions and thereafter returned to land,” Uko said.
Mr. Sam Adurogboye, spokesman for the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), told Daily Sun the story about a plane overshooting runway was as “fake news.”
According to him, “nothing of that nature occurred; it’s simply fake. What happened is this: The pilot was informed that visibility had reduced on ground as the aircraft was approaching the airport to land, as there was a heavy downpour. The pilot was advised to hold on.
“And once visibility had improved he was cleared to descend and land. It happens all the time at airports all over the world; and it happens in our airports too, to other airlines. And the Ethiopian Airline aircraft later landed safely. So, we don’t have any record of an incident of aircraft that overshot the runway.”