Authorities of the Aero Contractors airline yesterday confirmed the return of flight NG127 from Lagos to Abuja as a result of a burst tyre which occurred during take-off.
“The pilot did the right thing by not trying to abort the take-off. He controlled the plane into the air and following all trained procedures, he brought the plane back to a safe landing”, the airline said, adding that at no time were passengers at any risk.
The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) also confirmed the air return of an Aero Contractors plane from Abuja.
According to a statement from Mr Fan Ndubuoke, the General Manager, Public Affairs of the NCAA, the aircraft which took off from the MMA2 at about 3pm for Abuja from Lagos developed technical problems and made an air return as is the normal procedure.
“The aircraft with 141 passengers on board on arrival at the international wing of the MMIA Lagos had its passengers transferred to another Aero aircraft while some demanded refund of their fares”, it said.
Some of the passengers according to Mr Ndubuoke rescheduled their flights for today. Ndubuoke said the NCAA would examine what went wrong during the flight but assured the public of the agency’s commitment to passenger safety.