Another plane crash averted in Abuja

Another air disaster was averted at the Nnamdi
Azikwe Airport, Abuja on Monday as a Med-View
Airlines aircraft from Lagos suddenly took to the
air again at the point of landing in Abuja.
The pilot told the passengers that he took to the air
again to avoid a collision with another aircraft on
the tarmac.
The airline Flight VL2104 took off from the Murtala
Muhammed Airport, Lagos at noon and was
scheduled to land in Abuja at about 1.05pm.
The pilot had already announced final descent into
Abuja and asked all passengers and cabin crew to
fasten their seat belts but the pilot suddenly took
off to the air again with barely 30 seconds to touch
ground.
The plane had 150 passengers on board. A
correspondent of The PUNCH was one of the
passengers.
After about three minutes of gaining altitude, the
pilot announced that he decided to take off again to
avoid colliding with an aircraft that was on ground.
He said that after he had been granted clearance to
land, it was later discovered that the other aircraft
was not fast enough, hence his decision to take off.
The aircraft hovered for another 20 minutes in the
air before finally landing at about 1.30pm.
While the drama lasted, the passengers were
panic-stricken, especially when the plane entered
into turbulent weather on air.
The PUNCH correspondent said that among the
passengers were five different complete families.
One of the passengers, a nursing mother, who was
breastfeeding her son at the time the pilot took off
again reportedly withdrew the breast from the
boy’s mouth and started praying profusely while
the baby’s cry rented the air.
When the plane finally landed, the passengers
struggled to disembark.
“Are you still sitting down? Let me rush down in
case it will suddenly take off again,” a middle-aged
man was heard teasing one of his co-passengers.
The incident came less than a month after an
Embraer aircraft operated by Associated Airlines
with registration number SCD 361, conveying the
corpse of a former Governor of Ondo State, Chief
Olusegun Agagu, from Lagos to Akure for burial,
crashed on October 3 shortly after take-off at
Murtala Mohammed Airport, Lagos.
Thirteen passengers in the crashed plane were
killed, including a commissioner in Ondo State, Deji
Falae.