Louis Ibah
Regulatory authorities in Nigeria’s civil aviation industry have commenced investigations into the fire incident on one of the two engines of an Atlanta, USA-bound Delta Airlines flight 55 which forced the pilot to make an air return/emergency landing at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, less than an hour after it took off. No life was lost in the incident.
The Daily Sun learnt that both the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and the Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) have deployed their officials to commence investigations into the immediate cause of the incident which had led to severe injuries on some passengers during their emergency evacuation from their aircraft moments after it was forcefully brought down by the pilot at the Lagos international airport.
The incident had created serious panic among passengers as well as airport and regulatory officials that witnessed the scene, on Tuesday night.
“Nigerian accident investigators have been notified of the fire incident on the engine of the Delta Airlines flight which led to an emergency landing at the Lagos airport and they will start their investigations immediately,”
“Although this incident involved a US carrier who will send in their engineers and investigators to ascertain what went wrong, it also falls within the purview of Nigerian regulators to seek to know what went wrong. Remember, this incident happened in Nigeria and the majority of passengers were also Nigerians,” a source at the airport told Daily Sun. Commenting on the incident, General Manager, Public Relations of the NCAA, Mr. Sam Adurogboye, disclosed to journalists, in Lagos, that regulatory agencies in Nigeria had been notified of the incident and that although the carrier belonged to an American airline, it was the duty of regulatory authority in Nigeria to first investigate such occurrences in order to ascertain what caused the incident.
Daily Sun learnt that the Pilot-in-Command of the Airbus A330-200’s aircraft had called the Control Tower at the Lagos aircraft to inform that one of the two engines had caught fire mid-air after it took off from the Lagos airport at about 10.50p.m., on Tuesday.
An eyewitness at the Lagos airport told Daily Sun that, “the flight was initially pushed back at 22:40 hours by it made an air return/emergency landing at 23:16 hours when the Pilot in Command (PIC) after contacting the Control Towers informed that the left engine of the aircraft had caught fire mid air in-flight.”
“The pilot thereafter announced that there must be an evacuation of all the passengers on board the aircraft within 90seconds once he makes the emergency landing. Passengers were therefore evacuated via the aircraft emergency sliding door within few seconds.
“All airport agency officials on duty were on ground within few minutes that the emergency alarm was announced including FAAN fire service, FAAN aviation security (AVSEC), NCAA and Port Health Aviation Clinic staff, as well as NDLEA and Quarantine staff who could offer help.” “Although there was no death recorded but quite a number of crew and passenger injuries were recorded during evacuation and they were taken to the Air Force Base Clinic within the Lagos airport, FAAN Medical Centre and some to the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja for speedy medical attention.”
The official explained that the Delta Air Lines Aircraft had remained on the Runway for over one hour after the emergency landing which led to the airport’s partial closure. The incident led to the delays in the departure of other international flights like KLM, Air France and Lufthansa.
Delta Airlines, in a statement acknowledged the incident involving the Airbus A330-200’s two engines aircraft saying five passengers sustained “non-critical injuries.”.
Part of the statement read: “The flight landed safely and customers exited the aircraft on the runway via emergency slides. Airport fire authorities met the aircraft upon arrival. Delta’s customers were bussed back to the terminal.
“Delta Air Lines is aware of five customers reporting non-critical injuries as a result of the evacuation.
“Delta Air Lines teams have provided overnight hotel accommodations to customers and will re-book customers on an alternate Delta aircraft Wednesday afternoon. The safety of Delta’s customers and crew members is always our top priority,” the statement added.