11 October, 2012

FAAN, IRS Explain Aircraft Incident At MM2

 The management of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and local carrier IRS have explained the circumstances that led to the evacuation of passengers of a Lagos-Kano IRS plane at the local wing of the Murtala Muhammed Airport this morning, after the plane's wing broke when it struck a stationary truck as it taxied for takeoff.
 
The FAAN statement by Yakubu Dati, General Manager, Corporate Communications reads,
“Taxiway Incident At Murtala Muhammed Airport
 
At about 8.30 p.m last night (October 9, 2012), a gully emptier with Reg. No. XT 461 LSD on official assignment accidentally fell into a drainage in the taxiway ramp of GAT and could not be evacuated immediately. 
 
At about 7.30 a.m of today, October 10, 2012 an IRS aircraft, Forkker 100 with Reg. No. 5N SAT left the parking bay of MMA2 for the threshold of Runway 18L of MMIA. 
 
The pilot Capt. D Kelly of IRS was informed by an Arik Pilot of an obstruction on the taxiway towards Runway 18L and he Capt. D. Kelly felt he could maneuver the obstacle by his own judgment but this failed because the tip of the wing of the aircraft collided with a section of the gully emptier at about 7.45 a.m. 
 
Capt. D Kelly did not stop but continued to taxi back to the boarding gate of MMA2 to discharge his passengers. 
 
No passenger or crew sustained injuries as a result of the incident. All the passengers were later transferred to another IRS flight to Abuja. 
 
Officials of the Accident Investigation Bureau and the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority were immediately invited to the scene of the incident for the on-the-spot assessment of the incident while engineers of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria were placed on stand-by to evacuate the stuck sewage tanker as soon as preliminary investigations by both AIB and NCAA were concluded.
 
The Authority wishes to assure members of the public, especially airline operators and passengers, that the minor incident did not, and will not, in any way, disrupt flight operations at the airport. 
 
We also wish to assure the public that FAAN is committed to the security and safety of all our airports as enshrined in the transformation agenda, which is being implemented by FAAN.”
 
The IRS statement by managing director, Yemi Dada reads,
 
“Incident Involving IRS Aircraft At Lagos Airport
 
This morning our flight LVB 3306 taxied out on a Lagos to Kano flight with a transit stop at Abuja.
 
The Aircraft taxied out at 7:48am with 91 passengers.
 
While taxing on the taxi way the Captain observed a FAAN truck in a ditch. There were no marshallers around it neither was there any marking to indicate that it encroached into the taxi way. There was no NOTAM issued to that effect as well.
 
The captain continued on his taxi and the wing tip hit a protrusion from the truck towards the rear of the truck. This made the Captain request for a return to Ramp from the tower and also notify the tower of the incident and the danger posed by the truck.
 
The passengers were disembarked and re-accommodated on another aircraft which departed Lagos at 10:15am.
 
The incident has been reported to NCAA and we await the clearance of the NCAA to effect repairs and return the aircraft to service.”

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