Dana Airlines yesterday enmeshed in another aviation near mishap, this time in Port Harcourt, as it overshot the runway and ended up in the bush, a development which passengers on board attributed to inconsistency with flight schedule.
This was coming just after the embarrassment of an emergency door falling off on landing in Abuja recently.

According to the former governorship candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Bayelsa State, Mr. Famous Daunemigha who was on board as the incidence occurred attributed it to inconsistency with flight schedule.

Speaking in a telephone interview with Television Continental, Daunemigha said if the flight had left the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja on schedule, “we wouldn’t have experienced a bad weather.”

He therefore called on aviation authorities to make the airlines stick to their flight schedules.

Below is the verbatim report of the interview monitored by NewsGazette in Lagos.

“The flight was initially scheduled to leave Abuja by 4pm. We took off 6.10pm from Abuja airport. The pilot informed us that the aircraft will arrive at the PHIA by 6.52pm.

“I observed that there was a lot of thunder and rain; I wasn’t seeing any light from below. The last I can remember was that the pilot was making a call to the Port Harcourt control tower; but there was no response from the control tower. Then we landed. The landed was very smooth but just as we landed-I was sitting in the emergency exit my seat number was 21c- I just heard a kind of gbuum. All of a sudden we found ourselves struggling; the aircraft was running off the runway. We went very far; thank God that the plane now stopped. This was how I found myself surviving the crash.

“If we had left the airport by that 4pm, we wouldn’t have experienced bad weather. So, the aviation industry needs to restrict these airline operators for chewing more than what they can bite (sic),” said Daunemigha.

 

“Myself and one person from Benue were the last two persons that came out of the aircraft. No one person was injured, to my notice. But we were traumatized.

“I must say that the pilot was very brave; he was a very brave pilot. We thank God for his experience

Meanwhile, the incidence have been confirmed by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN).
Reports from FAAN indicated that the 44 passengers on board the flight which took off from Abuja were petrified by the incident but were evacuated from the bush when the pilot was able to stop the aircraft.

FAAN’s Head of Corporate Affairs, Mrs. Henrietta Yakubu, said no one sustained any injury in the incident.
The incident was suspected to have been caused by torrential rain and heavy wind and storm which occurred in Port Harcourt but it was yet to be confirmed whether the pilot defied report indicating bad weather on the route.

The statement from the airline, which was signed by its spokesman, Kingsley Ezenwa, said the aircraft overshot the runway on landing when pressure caused by slippery runway or technical deficiency forced it to get out of the pilot’s control and skided out off the runway.

 

Ezenwa said the incident was caused by torrential rainfall and bad weather at the time of landing, but the passengers on-board disembarked from the flight unharmed.

“No casualty was recorded and all passengers and crew disembarked safely,” the statement said.
The airline also said: “We commend the Pilot-in -command who was able to control the aircraft to a complete stop, before passengers and crew disembarked. We also wish to applaud the Captain for exhibiting the highest safety standards and handling the situation professionally.”