A commercial aircraft belonging to Dana Air nearly crashed after hitting the fence of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja on Friday.
This is coming in less than 24 hours after a chartered aircraft lost its tyres and landing gear at the same airport.
The Dana plane with registration number 5 N-DEV from Port Harcourt, used its left wing to hit a fence while trying to park.
Punch quoted sources at the airport and passengers onboard the flight as saying that no injury was recorded while blaming the aircraft’s pilot for the incident.
The spokesperson for FAAN, Henrietta Yakubu, confirmed the development to the newspaper, stating that the plane only hit a noise breaker stationed on the tarmac
She said, “There are these things we put on the air side that we call noise breakers to stop noise and exhaust from getting to people. It is not really a fence, but they are just there like pillars to reduce noise and fumes from exhaust pipes and the plane just scrapped it and continued on its way.
“So there is nothing to worry about the incident. It didn ’t affect the flight , the plane continued and it parked. It was the wing that scrapped the noise breaker and the plane continued until it parked.”
The spokesperson for Dana Air, Ezenwa Okwudili, also told Punch that the firm’s engineers were working on the aircraft to ascertain the extent of the damage on the plane.
He said, “It is the wing tip that was affected and our engineers are looking at it to determine the extent of the damage.
“They will work on it tonight (Friday night) and I don’t think the aircraft was parked where it will obstruct anything. It ’s a tip of the wing and not a serious issue.” (Daily Post)