Returning pilgrims’ aircraft crash-lands in Kano

JetBlue Airways Flight 292 making an emergency landing at the Los Angeles International Airport; September 21, 2005 (pix: Wikipedia)

KANO - A Yola bound chartered aircraft with about 500 Nigerian pilgrims and other cabin crew members on board from Saudi Arabia Monday crash-landed at the Mallam Aminu Kano Airport when one of its tyres burst while on emergency landing.

The aircraft named after late President Umaru Yar’Adua, is a Boeing 747 Jumbo jet with registration number 5N-DBM belonging to Max Air, one of the official airlines hired for this year’s Hajj.

Eyewitness say that the plane made an emergency landing at the airport by 3.00am, adding that the pilgrims survived through divine intervention, with no life lost as the plane wobbled to a halt.

It was learnt that passangers who panicked throughout the period of uncertainty were seen in prostrate position around the tarmac after hurriedly disembarking from the aircraft as chants of Allahu Akbar (God is Great) rent the air.

Media Consultant to the airline, Dahiru Ibrahim, confirmed the incident in a telephone interview saying, ‘’It was not an emergency landing. The aircraft lost four tyres while landing at the airport but I want to make it very clear that it was not an emergency landing as being speculated in some quarters.

‘’The pilot decided to land at the Kano Airport because aeroplanes cannot land at night at the Yola Airport. The passengers were expected to disembark in broad day light.’’

Aviation engineers were seen around noon yesterday fixing new tyres to the aircraft.

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