Freelanews has learnt that an aircraft belonging to Dana Airlines Limited was engulfed in fire during take-off.
The mishap occurred in Port Harcourt airport on Monday evening, May 2, 2022 and according to information made available to our correspondent, about 50 passengers were rescued.
In a statement titled, ‘Press statement on Port Harcourt Incident of 2/5/22’ on Tuesday morning, Dana Air spokesman, Kingsley Ezenwa, said the aircraft had been grounded pending the conclusion of their investigations.
It partly read, “Our aircraft with registration number 5N JOY operating flight 9J 344 from Port Harcourt to Lagos on 2nd of May 2022, was set to take off when the pilot in command noticed an anomaly which he queried with the Air Traffic Control before embarking on a ramp return in line with our strict safety operating procedures
“However, the impact on the brakes as a result of the aborted take off affected the aircraft tyres which sparked off while the aircraft was taxiing to repark.
“All 50 passengers onboard the aircraft disembarked safely and our maintenance team have immediately grounded the aircraft pending the conclusion of their investigations.
“Once again, we sincerely apologize to all the passengers on the flight for the inconveniences caused due to the eventual cancellation of the flight.”
Freelanews recalls that in February, a fully loaded Lagos-bound Dana flight made an emergency landing in Abuja due to a technical fault that wasn’t made known to the public, making it the second in two months.
Nigerians have begun to question the airline’s safety. The last air crash in the country involving a commercial airplane was in June 2012 when a Dana Air MD-83 aircraft from Abuja crashed near the Lagos airport while attempting an emergency landing, killing all 153 souls on board and six on the ground.
The Nigerian civil airspace has maintained a relatively safe record in about a decade now which has increased passengers’ confidence in air travel.
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