A faulty landing gear has disrupted air flight of Ibom airline scheduled for Lagos-Abuja trip, a development which could have cause a major disaster in the country, but quick intervention of an engineers saved the day.
Penpushing reports that a former Director-General of the Bureau of Public Service Reforms, Joe Abah, who was on board for the trip narrated how the proactiveness of an aircraft engineer averted a potential disaster.
The passenger in a series of tweets posted on his X handle (formerly Twitter) on Thursday to narrate his experience recalled that the flight was scheduled to depart Lagos for Abuja having boarded at 7.00am alongside his brother and number of other passengers
Penpushing further reports that Abah recalled that the flight was about to take off when something unusual happened, following a loud knock on the aircraft door from outside, and this prompted the flight attendant to open the exit door
‘I boarded a 7 am @ibomairlines flight in Lagos this morning, heading to Abuja. My brother @seunonigbinde was on the same flight and we had chatted briefly about work. The aircraft door was shut, phones switched off, and ready for takeoff’, he wrote.
Penpushing also reports that the former Director-General of the Bureau of Public Service Reforms explained that as the flight attendant opened the door a ground engineer entered, and declared that the aircraft cannot continue the trip
‘As she did, a ground engineer came in and those of us in front clearly heard him say ‘You can’t go. Your landing gear is bad. The pilot made a political announcement that they needed to perform some additional checks before take-off and apologised for the delay. He spoke with the engineer and, a few seconds later, announced that we were to disembark’, Abah recalled.
‘I thank God that we have the systems in place to check this and avert potential disaster. And that we have some diligent Nigerians who take their work seriously. If you are that young Nigerian engineer, God will bless you abundantly”, he added
Penpushing reports that the former Director-General of the Bureau of Public Service Reforms called on the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to help identify the engineer for him to personally appreciate his intervention.
The source within the airline management who doesn’t want his name in print equally attested to the ugly development explaining that the aircraft developed a landing gear fault, and it was noticed before it took off.
‘It’s the towbar they used in pushing back the Aircraft that affected it. But they had finished boarding and the aircraft was pushing back when they noticed the stuff. What they noticed I don’t really know. Something about hydraulic stuff’, the source said.
Penpushing further reports that Communications Manager at Ibom Air, Annie Essienette, when contacted confirmed the development in a statement, adding that the engineer, who wore a headset to communicate with the pilots, promptly drew the attention of the pilot in charge to his observation.
‘This morning, on our 7 am flight from Lagos to Abuja, while the aircraft was pushing back from the gate, under the supervision of the monitoring engineer, he noticed an issue with the nose gear’, the management stated
Penpushing also reports that Essienette disclosed that the decision was made to inspect the nose, and passengers had to be disembarked, describing this as a routine practice in the industry, and that supervising engineers often remain vigilant in inspecting an aircraft until it departs.
“While the aircraft has since been taken to the hangar to have the problem fixed, we regret the delay in delivering our usual service to our valued passengers. We will always take precautions and prioritise the safety of our passengers,” the statement reads.
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