Nigeria Records Four Incidents in One Day

Lagos, Nigeria - Nigeria's aviation authorities were put to the test Wednesday, when the country recorded air incidents involving four different aircraft and a total of 118 persons, but no one was hurt in the incidents.

According to the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), three distressed aircraft were assisted by FAAN officials in landing safely at the gateway Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMA) in the commercial city of Lagos and the Sam Mbakwe International Cargo Airport in the South-eastern city of Owerri.

One other aircraft suffered a cabin pressure problem while heading to Lagos but needed no assistance to land.

The first incident involved a Boeing 737 passenger aircraft belonging to the local Chanchangi Airlines, which took off from the Owerri Airport at about 11am local time but had to make a return three minutes later following the loss of one of its two engines.

The plane was carrying 108 passengers and crew at the time of the incident.

FAAN said in a statement that officials of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and the Accident Investigation Bureau immediately began investigation into the incident, while the airline cancelled all its flights from Owerri to Lagos for the day.

The second incident involved a DC-10 30F cargo aircraft belonging to Gemini Air Cargo but chartered by DHL, which had to make an emergency landing because its landing gear failed to retract shortly after it took off from the MMA at about 2.53 pm local time.

The aircraft, marked N602 GC, was on its way to Belgium and had five persons on board.

After the pilot, Capt. Thomas Killian, made a distress call to the MMA control tower at about 3 pm local time, it was directed to discharge its fuel in the ocean before the aircraft eventually landed safely at the MMA at 3.32 pm local time.

The plane was escorted on landing by four fire vehicles, while NCAA officials had already begun investigation into the incident.