For the second time this month, Nigeria’s aviation authorities have had to address the issue of safety in the sector. They have launched an investigation into how a passenger plane overshot the runway while landing in the southern city of Port Harcourt last Tuesday.
The incident involving a Dana Air Boeing MD-83 jet happened at about 7:30 pm, Nigerian Time (1830 GMT) on Tuesday. None of the 44 passengers and six crew members on board was injured.
However, a spokesman for the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, Sam Adurogboye, said the plane was badly damaged pointing out that the agency has launched an investigation.
It was the second incident involving domestic airliner, Dana Air, this month: on February 7, the plane’s emergency exit door fell off as it landed in Abuja from Lagos.
The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, said Tuesday’s incident “was suspected to have been caused by heavy rain, which was accompanied by strong wind and a storm”.
Dana Air was grounded after one of its MD-83 aircraft crashed outside Lagos on June 3, 2012, killing all 153 passengers and crew on board as well as six persons on the ground. An air accident investigation report published last year blamed mechanical failure and pilot error for that incident.
However, the authorities allowed the airline to resume operations in January 2014.
