There was celebration Sunday evening after apprehension by crew and passengers. A pilot had just averted a possible crash of an Arik plane.
The plane, operating as flight W3420 from Abuja to Benin City, reportedly lost one of its two engines mid air about 40 minutes after takeoff and had to make a detour.
The plane was operating a 4.05 pm flight on February 28, 2021.
The pilot returned to Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport where it landed safely amid celebration by passengers aboard the vessel.
A passenger onboard narrated that the pilot actually announced about 40 minutes into the 55-minute flight to Benin that: “we have lost one of our equipment (short of calling it engine, knowing full well, that would cause panic among passengers).
He said the pilot was “just uttering some technical jargons.” He stated that while this was going on, the passengers did not really know what was going on or the serious danger in which they were.
He said it was moments after the pilot announced the equipment loss that he announced the plane’s descent into Abuja. “It was a surprise that when the plane made a detour on its way to Benin, the passengers did not know.”
“All of a sudden, I saw the Abuja scenery,” confirming we were actually going to land in Abuja.
He said the British pilot later explained that he decided to return to Abuja instead of proceeding to land in Benin because of the state-of-the-art navigational aids at the Abuja Airport, which Benin Airport does not have.
On ground, the passenger told The Conclave that Arik Staff members who were already aware of the crisis the plane had were praying for the safe landing of the vessel.
They said they were praying because that was the way the Airforce plane lost an engine and was returning to the Abuja Airport when it crashed. The Ariik staff members went into dancing and singing after the plane touched down successfully.
Indeed, the mechanical problem could have resulted in another crash a week after an Airforce plane crashed in Abuja, killing all seven onboard.
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