The incident occurred on Monday evening at the Port Harcourt
airport, our correspondent learnt.
It was also gathered that no life was lost and no passenger
was injured as first responders including operatives of the fire service at the
airport moved in to control the situation.
In a statement on Tuesday morning, Dana Air spokesman,
Kingsley Ezenwa,
It was titled, ‘Press statement on Port Harcourt Incident of
2/5/22’ said the aircraft had been grounded pending the conclusion of their
investigations.
It partly read, “Our aircraft with registration number 5N
JOY operating flight 9J 344 from Port Harcourt to Lagos on 2nd of May 2022, was
set to take off when the pilot in command noticed an anomaly which he queried
with the Air Traffic Control before embarking on a ramp return in line with our
strict safety operating procedures
“However, the impact on the brakes as a result of the
aborted take off affected the aircraft tyres which sparked off while the
aircraft was taxiing to repark.
“All 50 passengers onboard the aircraft disembarked safely
and our maintenance team have immediately grounded the aircraft pending the
conclusion of their investigations.
“Once again, we sincerely apologize to all the passengers on
the flight for the inconveniences caused due to the eventual cancellation of
the flight.”
The Nigerian civil airspace has maintained a relatively safe
record in about a decade now which has increased passengers’ confidence in air
travel. The last air crash in the country involving a commercial airplane was in
June 2012 when a Dana Air MD-83 aircraft from Abuja crashed near the Lagos
airport while attempting an emergency landing, killing all 153 souls on board
and six on the ground.