There was a mild drama earlier this afternoon at the Port Harcourt International Airport when an Air Peace flight from Abuja skidded off the runway and ended up in the bush.
According to eyewitnesses, no harm came to anyone onboard the plane as all the passengers and crew were eventually evacuated.
Clips from the incident showed visibly shaken passengers alighting from the plane and walking to the bus that eventually conveyed them to the arrival area.
I just narrowlly escaped a plane crash, coming out of this plane alive is definitely God. I don't wish anyone this experience, not even my enemy.
It was raining heavily when we got to PH Airport, the pilot forcefully landed, eventually he left the runway and ran into the bush. pic.twitter.com/8w4blG7D8S
— ThankGod Okorisha (@ThankGodDonald) June 22, 2019
The Details: At this point, it is unclear what actually caused the aircraft to end up some 200 meters in the bush away from the runway. Nairametrics reached out to our sources in the company who confirmed that the minor accident did occur. However, they could not categorically state what really happened; pending an official investigation.
In the meantime, preliminary reports have speculated that bad weather and the poor condition of the runway are some of the likely factors that might have caused the accident. There was a heavy downpour in Port Harcourt earlier today.
JUST IN:
Tragedy averted as Nigerian #AirPeace plane landing in #Portharcourt #Riversstate from #Abuja skids of runway unto bush path.
As at the time of this report, no lives were reported lost as all passengers were safely evacuated from the plane.
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.#GERNGA #aviation #naija pic.twitter.com/g3SL6abNSQ— Dokitor 🇳🇬 Savage 🇨🇦 (@dokitorsavage) June 22, 2019
Earlier Developments: Apparently, this is not the only minor accident the Nigerian airline has been involved in recently. As Nairametrics earlier reported, Air Peace was recently accused by the Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) of intentionally concealing information about some of the air mishaps its jets have been involved in. The IAB listed some of the recent incidents involving the airline thus-
- An accident involving Air Peace Boeing 737-300 aircraft with Registration Marks 5N-BUK.
- An incident on the runway 18R at the Lagos Airport in May.
- There was also another incident in December when a Boeing 737-300 belonging to the airline experienced some difficulties while en route the Akanu Ibiam International Airport from Lagos.
[READ MORE: Why Arik Air carried out an adjustment on scheduled operations]
While the Accident Investigation Bureau claimed that none of these incidents was properly investigated because of the airline’s lack of co-operation, Air Peace issued a press statement describing the AIB’s utterances as a “witch hunt”.
Hmmmnnn… My people, we thank God. Let us just say this plane has landed in its final destination in the bush. Full stop. We thank God for journey mercies! Chai!