74 Air Passengers Cheat Death

Medview Air which was recently issued an Air Operator’s Certificates (AOC), yesterday made an air return on its Abuja bound flight from the Murtala Muhammed Airport Terminal Two (MMA2) with 74 passengers on board.

Information gathered by our correspondent revealed that 15 minutes after take-off from the airport, there was a bang in one of the two engines of the Boeing 737-400, which prompted the pilot to quickly return to base.

The incident led to panic among the  passengers onboard the aircraft.

As at the time of filing this report, it was gathered that the aircraft engineers together with the safety officers of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority were working on the aircraft to ascertain the cause of the bang.

Besides, when the aircraft finally made an air return to Lagos, some of the passengers who were previously onboard refused to travel with it while others agreed to be put on another aircraft of the airline already on ground at the tarmac.

Speaking on the issue, the General Manager, Med-View Airline, Mr. David Babatunde confirmed the incident, but explained that air return was normal in global aviation industry, saying that the pilot took the precautionary safety measures by returning to base.

Babatunde stated that the engineers were still looking at the cause of the incident and would submit their findings to the management and regulatory authority.

He said, “On take-off, about 15 minutes in-flight, we had a bang on one of the two engines, an upsurge. So, the captain took a safety precautionary measure and decided to shut down the engine and return to base.  The aircraft was heading to Abuja with 74 passengers.

“The engineers are looking at the cause of the upsurge and the passengers were immediately disembarked and put into another aircraft, which eventually took them to Abuja. As I am talking to you right now, the passengers are already in Abuja.”