By Dickson Omobola
Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Mr Festus Keyamo, Wednesday, disclosed that the the private aircraft with registration number N989BC which landed on a road in the Ogwashi-Uku area of Delta State some weeks ago did not suffer any mechanical failure, but mistakenly landed on a road that the pilots mistook for a runway.
Keyamo said the aircraft had been cleared to land at Asaba Airport but failed to touch down on the designated runway.
He said the control tower lost visual contact with the aircraft shortly after issuing landing clearance and later discovered that it had landed on a nearby construction road, where it dropped passengers.
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.”
On the International Air Transport Association, IATA, assertion that Nigeria is an expensive environment to operate an airline due to taxies, levies and charges, he said President Bola Tinubu is about setting up a committee involving aviation, finance and tax authorities and the Airline Operators of Nigeria, AON, to look at the issue.
