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.