No fewer than five persons sustained various degree of injuries as a Delta Airlines aircraft made an emergency landing at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos, after it lost one of its engines to fire about one hour after it took off from the airport.
The aircraft an A330-200 bound for Atlanta which took off from the airport at about 10.30pm made an emergency air return after the engine incident.
Delta in a statement said, the flight which initially pushed back at 22:40hrs had Air Return /Emergency landing at 23:16hrs, when the pilot in command (PIC) announced the evacuation of all the passengers on board within 90 seconds, after contacting the Control Towers because the left engine of the Aircraft was said to have caught fire midair in-flight.
It said passengers were being evacuated via the emergency sliding door within few seconds adding that all airport agencies officials on duty were on ground within few minutes to assist in evacuating the passengers.
“All airport agencies Officials on duty were on ground within few minutes that the emergency alarm was announced including AVSEC, NCAA-CPOS, FAAN Fire Service, Port Health and Aviation Clinic, Quarantine, NDLEA etc. Although there is no death recorded as at filing this report but quite a number of crew and passenger casualties were recorded and have been taken to LASUTH Ikeja, Air Force Base Clinic, and FAAN medical centre for speedy medical attention.”
The Delta aircraft which was on the Runway for over 1hr led to its closure and prevented some carriers like KLM, LUFTHANSA and AIR FRANCE from departing. They eventually departed the airport after aircraft was later towed with a push back truck to the open parking bay close to Boarding gate E 63.
Delta airlines said the remaining casualty – free passengers were later taken to Hotel after the flight was announced cancelled and rescheduled for a date yet to be specified and communicated ; but CPOs are still monitoring to get any further updates in due course.
Meanwhile, Nigeria’s Civil Aviation Authority (NCCA) has said investigation to find the remote cause the in the incident will soon commence.
According to newsbulletinng.com, DG, NCCA, Captain Muhtar Usman said investigations were on by the Accident Investigation Bureau, AIB to find out the cause of the engine fire, whether minor or serious.
” Officials of the AIB are there investigating, if it is serious, the AIB will be working with the US National Transportation Safety board, NTSB”.
