609 Escape Death •As Birds Shut Down Plane Engine Mid-Air •Train Derails

Written by Shola Adekola & Kola Oyelere
Saturday, 12 June 2010

An aircraft belonging to Chanchangi Airline on Friday made an emergency landing at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos, after engine number one of the aircraft suffered shortly after take-off from Lagos on its way to Kaduna.

According to an official of the airline, the aircraft, a B737-400 with registration number 5N-BIF with 109 passengers, which left the Lagos airport at 5:00 p.m., ran into trouble when one of its aircraft shut down.

The pilot in charge of the flight numbered NCH334, Captain Raymond, was said to have immediately radioed air traffic controllers for an emergency air return when he discovered that he had lost an engine to ingestion of the birds.

The aircraft, which landed safely back to Lagos, was parked on the apron of the domestic airport where inspectors from the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) went to inspect it to ascertain the level of damage.

Confirming this, the Director-General of the NCAA, Dr. Harold Demuren, said:“Yes, the aircraft had emergency successful air return this (yesterday) evening. Our men moved to the area to inspect the aircraft. We are monitoring their operations.”

Meanwhile, About 500 passengers, on Thursday night, escaped death in Kano when a train going from Kano to Nguru in Yobe State derailed along Audu Bako/Central hotel road, Kano, just a little distance to the terminus.

The train, with registration number, EAR- MIKE AKHIGBE 2132, with 12 coaches and wagons derailed, on Thursday, at 9.45 p.m.

A source, who preferred anonymity, told Saturday Tribune that officials of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and police were deployed to the scene of the mishap to rescue the injured passengers.

It was learnt that some of the passengers, who sustained injuries, jumped out of the train in an attempt to escape death.

One of the injured passengers, Ibrahim Musa, said they were half-dead when they realised that the train had lost control, adding that the incident was enough to scare one not to board a train again.

Speaking in the same vein, another passenger, Sani Garba Sharu, who boarded the train in Kano on his way to Nguru, said the corporation, after the derailment, refunded their fares.

All attempts to obtain official comment about the accident proved abortive as no staff of the corporation was ready to comment.

However, a few of them, who spoke with Saturday Tribune, on condition of anonymity said that it was only the regional manager that could speak to the press on the issue.