[FILES] Air Peace
Air
Peace airline, yesterday, reassured its customers and members of the
public of safe operations and airworthiness of its airplanes following
recent incidences.
The airline gave assurance as it explained that the near-mishap
recorded in Lagos, on Monday, was more likely to have been caused by the
pilot’s error than the condition of the aircraft.
An Air Peace Boeing 737-300 plane made an emergency landing on the
Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) runway on Monday.
The near-mishap incident, just before noon, saw the plane losing its
front wheel, and stationary towards the end of the runway until it was
evacuated some six hours later. Onboard were 133 passengers and six crew
members.
The airline last month had a similar incident when one of its
aircraft overshot the Port Harcourt International Airport (PHIA) runway
during a heavy downpour. On May 15 this year, an Air Peace Boeing
737-300 with registration number 5N-BUK made a hard landing in Lagos, on
account of a sudden change in weather at the point of touchdown.
Safety Manager of Air Peace, Capt. Godfrey Ogbogu, Wednesday
explained that the landing incident of flight P4 7191 at MMIA had
nothing to do with the airworthiness of the airplane.
Ogbogu said: “Our preliminary in-house investigation indicates that
in a bid to make a positive touchdown as required by procedures during
such wet weather operations, the pilot landed the airplane harder than
intended, which affected the nose-wheel.
“There are no issues with the airworthiness of the aircraft, as Air
Peace Limited assures of best maintenance practices at all times and
spares no resources to that effect.
“The management wishes to assure the flying public that Air Peace
Limited has never stopped appraising its safety practices and procedures
as demanded by industry standards,” he said.
The Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB), has commenced an
investigation into the latest incident to uncover the actual cause of
the near mishap.
One of the passengers on board the aircraft recounted the experience
via social media yesterday. The account suggested that all went well
during the flight until it was time to land.
“As we arrived in Lagos on Air Peace, the pilot (she was a woman, I
was so proud) announced that we will be landing at international tarmac
because of visibility issues.
“Some minutes later, it seems the plane started nose-diving on a fast
track. And she in her expertise applied control. Then, it picked up
speed and bang, bang.
“We dropped from the sky to the hard ground and the ceiling of the
plane dropped. Children crying, people screening the blood of Jesus!
Some screamed my mummy. It was hard. My life flashed before me.”
She added that the pilot did much to calm nerves until emergency responders arrived “52 minutes later.”
