Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, on Wednesday revealed that the private aircraft with registration number N989BC, which landed on a road in Ogwashi-Uku, Delta State, weeks ago, did not experience any mechanical fault but mistakenly touched down on a road the pilots allegedly believed was a runway.
Keyamo explained that the aircraft had received clearance to land at Asaba Airport but failed to arrive on the approved runway.
According to him, the control tower lost sight of the aircraft shortly after granting landing permission and later found that it had landed on a nearby construction road, where passengers were disembarked.
Speaking on Politics Tonight, a TVC programme, he said: “The tower in Asaba cleared them to land. After about two minutes, the tower called and said: ‘where is your location? I can’t see you again. I can’t see you on the tarmac.’ As it is known, the tower is always elevated, thus one can see the whole of the runway and the apron.
“But they (the pilots) said they had landed, so the tower asked: ‘landed where?’ I can see the whole of the runway and aprons, but you are not there. So, they said they landed on a roadway that they saw. It happened that it was a construction site very close to the airport. They saw a beautiful road there that looked like a runway and landed there.
“Before they (relevant agency) could go there and ask questions, they (pilots) took off to Lagos after dropping their passengers. There was no mechanical failure, and that was why they could take off again. However, those facts are before the Department of State Service, DSS. It has gone beyond aviation, it is now a security concern. Security agencies are looking into that, and there are reports they will first send to Mr President because it is a matter of national security.”
Commenting on the International Air Transport Association (IATA)’s position that Nigeria remains an expensive destination for airline operations because of taxes, levies and other charges, Keyamo said President Bola Tinubu is set to establish a committee comprising representatives from the aviation, finance and tax sectors, alongside the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), to address the concerns.