No Pilgrims’ Plane Crash-landed in Minna, Says NAHCON

The National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) has said no plane carrying pilgrims from Jeddah crash-landed at the Minna airport last Saturday.

There were reports last Saturday that the 559 pilgrims from Niger State, who were returning from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, escaped death when the MAX Air Flight NGL 2092 that lifted them home nearly crash-landed after developing technical fault.

In a statement yesterday, the Head, Public Affairs of NAHCON, Fatima Sanda Usara, said the flight which departed the King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah at 2.34 a.m. on September 7, landed safely in Minna with all the passengers back to their destinations.

She added that as for the condition of the plane, NAHCON had been assured by the relevant agencies that investigation was on going to ascertain the nature of the technical fault encountered.

“Therefore, while waiting for experts to confirm the real situation, NAHCON requests the public to be cautious of misinformation. Already, two flights of the same MAX Air had taken off and landed in Nigeria the same day. So far, 38, 807 pilgrims have been transported back to Nigeria in 80 flights,” Usara said.

In a statement issued by Director of Flight Operations, MAX Air, Captain Ibrahim Dilli, he said the aircraft, a Boeing 747-400 with registration number 5N-DBK, ran into a torrential rain with unstable winds at the time of arrival.

Dilli added that the instrument at the Minna airport was epileptic with unreliable signals.

According to him, “Our pilots executed an approach, using their wealth of experience and knowledge of the terrain to a safe landing and stop on the runway, during which one of the engines slightly brushed the runway due to complex landing maneuvers occasioned by the strong downdraft. The airplane did not crash or skid off the run way.”

He disclosed that all the required reports on the minor incident had been filed while officials of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) were satisfied after inspecting both the aircraft and runway.