The National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) has said that no
plane carrying pilgrims, returning from Jeddah crash-landed at the
Minna airport early Saturday.
There were reports on Saturday that the 559 pilgrims from Niger State,
who were returning from Jeddah, escaped death when the MAX Air Flight
NGL 2092 that lifted them home, nearly crash-landed after developing
technical fault.
In a statement on Sunday, 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 Saturday, 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 ongoing to
ascertain the nature of the technical fault encounter.
“Therefore while waiting for experts to confirm the real situation,
NAHCON requests the general 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.
A press release by the Director Flight Operations, MAX Air, Captain
Ibrahim Dilli, said that the aircraft, a Boing 747-400, with
registration number 5N-DBK, ran into a heavy torrential rain with
unstable winds at the time of arrival.
Dilli also added that the instrument at the Minna Airport was
epileptic with unreliable signals.
“Our pilots executed an approach, using their wealth of experience and
knowledge of the terrain and environment to a safe landing and stop on
the runway, during which one of the engines slightly brushed the
runway due to complex landing manoeuvres occasioned by the strong
downdraft. Airport did not crash, nor skid off the runway,” the
statement said.
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.
