Dana forced to disembark passengers over technical fault

A Dana plane got stuck on the threshhold of the Sam Mbakwe Airport, Owerri as the airplane, an MD 83 plane was planning for take-off.

The front wheel (front tyres) got locked forcing difficulty for a taxi preparatory for take-off.

The Dana flight was going to Lagos from Owerri when the incident occured.

The incident which happened at the Sam Mbakwe International Cargo airport, Owerri, left some of the passengers shaken.

The 3pm Lagos bound aircraft had fully loaded it’s passengers and was about take to the air when a technical malfunction was noticed in the Dana Air craft.

An airport source, who witnessed the evacuation of passengers told our correspondent in confidence that the aircraft had taxied through the runway and had approached the runway threshold where planes lift into the air, but could not as one of the wheels was stuff and unresponsive.

Our source noted that the pilot of the plane had tried to manoeuvre the plane into full functionality but the plane could still could not lift into the air due to the unresponsive wheels and as such had to be grounded.

Consequently, the Dana Air plane blocked off the runway such that no plane could land or take-off for nearly an hour.

It took the intervention of the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) which mobilized buses and other vehicle to go to the grounded plane and ferry passengers back to the departure lounge.

FAAN buses and Air Peace buses were among the buses and vehicles that were used to evacuate passengers before the craft was moved out of the runway.

Reacting to the incident the management of Dana Air said it was not quite a very serious issue but had been taken care of by the airline.

Speaking to newsmen, the Communications Manager, Kingsley Ezenwa said that the airline had already sent another aircraft to airlift the passengers affected by the technical hitch, saying that the passengers  would have reached their destinations around 6pm.

He assured that the airline engineers would immediately ground the affected aircraft and do the needful.

As at the time of filing this report, the Dana Air craft was still grounded at the Imo International Cargo airport, Owerri.