A passenger who had flown on the ill-fated
plane earlier that day from Lagos to Abuja narrated how its engine
stopped working for 30 seconds during flight. Fitz Patrick, a
telecommunications engineer with Huawei Telecommunications told Daily
Sun that his return flight from Lagos to Abuja on the same plane owned
by Dana Airlines was supposed to be for 12.06pm but it was delayed.
 advertisem
|
|
|
According to him, when the
plane took off, it shook seriously and he was scared that it would not
be able to make it to Abuja.
"I took the plane that crash
landed earlier in the day. My return flight to Abuja was supposed to be
for 12.06pm on Sunday but the plane left Lagos late. Everybody
complained. Eventually, it took off. When we were in the air, the plane
shook seriously and I became scared. But after a while, it went
smoothly.
"The pilot later announced that
visibility in Abuja was up to 10 kilometres and there were scattered
clouds so no cause for alarm. We continued to move. When we were about
to land, the plane shook three times and it was serious. At a point, the
engine stopped for about 30 seconds. My seat number was 27B. Then I
heard the noise again. What I was thinking within myself was that
'Please Patrick, pray. Can the pilot hold this flight?" he said.
He added that a similar
incident had happened last Friday when he left Abuja for Lagos. He
stated that there was a loud noise from the plane's propeller during the
flight but that it was on Sunday before he knew that they had an
emergency landing.
"My flight number to Lagos last
Friday was 996 and my return flight from Lagos was 993.
"On Friday, my flight time was
7.35pm but we had an hour delay. My seat number was 25A. The sound of
the propeller was too much. I held my two ears and opened my eyes.
During the flight, the pilot said we were about to be at 30, 000 feet
above sea level but in my experience, I know that at 30, 000 feet you
cannot see any building yet I was seeing buildings.
"It was on Sunday that I knew
that they had emergency landing on Friday. On Friday, we didn't land at
Murtala Muhammed Airport 2 but at airport 1, specifically near the bush.
While we were still inside the aircraft, there were already three cars
with headlamps as well as an ambulance and fire extinguishers waiting.
The pilot said 'sorry for landing you here. It is a sign of good things
coming to Nigeria'. Some people smiled while others murmured. My
understanding was that they did not give them permission to land at MMA
2," Patrick said.
Asked why he did not make
strong complaints to the airline's management, Fitz lamented that there
was no one that he could think of among the airline staff who would take
his complaints seriously and work on it. "I could not make complaints.
Is it the air hostess I will tell, the pilot or those at the airport who
would smile and say 'thank you for choosing Dana Air'?" he queried.
However, he said he was still
in shock about what happened because the plane could have crashed at the
time he took the flight but it did not crash especially as it was his
wife who recommended the airline to him. He said that was his first time
of using Dana Air to fly.
"Since I heard about the crash,
I have been seriously traumatized. I will go for thanksgiving because
that was my first flight on Dana Air. My wife recommended the airline to
me.
"I remember one of the air
hostesses. She was tall and fair. She carried a suitcase with the name
Christine written on it but I heard a male member of the cabin crew call
her to help a woman who had left her seat to look for something and she
went to attend to the passenger with a smile. That was how I knew her
name was Uche. I noticed that the male member of the cabin was wearing a
wedding ring and I wondered how his family was coping with his kind of
job. Most of the ladies were fair.
"I later confirmed that it was
the same plane that crashed; the number was PNRKCSJ40.
After I had landed on Sunday, I
told my driver who came to pick me up at the airport that I would never
take Dana again because I did not enjoy the flight. Unknown to me that
the same plane would crash," he lamented.
|
No comments:
Post a Comment