The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority says it has set up a four-man team to investigate the alleged incident involving Dana Air’s flight on Wednesday.
Dana Airline Management speaks up slams story about an aircraft door falling off after landing.
A Nigerian doctor and passenger aboard a Dana flight in Nigeria, Ola Orekerin, took to Twitter to describe a terrifying situation where the door of the aircraft belonging to the airline fell off upon landing.
She stated in a tweet moments after landing that throughout a flight on the airplane, the exit door seems unstable only to fall off the plane as soon as it landed. Although Ms. Orekunrin did not reveal the airport where the incident happened, sources say it happened at Abuja. Her tweet garnered thousands of retweets and several replies soon after.
The passenger, Ola Brown, with Twitter handle, @NaijaFlyerDr, had tweeted, “Flew Dana. Exit door was unstable throughout the flight. As we touched down, it fell off. Scary stuff.”
The General Manager, Public Affairs, NCAA, Mr. Sam Adurogboye, said the agency was working to ascertain what actually happened.
“The affected plane has been certified safe and returned to service but we have set a four-man team to investigate what actually happened. If the plane was faulty, it would not have been cleared to take off,” he stated.
In a statement signed by its Media and Communications Manager, Kingsley Ezenwa, Dana Air said the door was tampered with.
The statement read in part, “Dana Air’s attention has been drawn to some online publication that the door of one of our aircraft fell off after landing and while taxing in Abuja today. We wish to state categorically that this could never have happened without a conscious effort by a passenger to open it.
“By design, the emergency exit door of our aircraft are plug-type backed by pressure, which ordinarily cannot fall off without tampering or conscious effort to open by a crew member or passenger. We also wish to enlighten the author that when an aircraft is airborne, it is fully pressurised and there was no way the seat or door could have been ‘shaking’ as insinuated.”
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The airline added that a team of its engineers and others from the NCAA had inspected the aircraft and no issue was reported.
“There was also no threat to safety at any point. A thorough investigation is ongoing,” the airline added.
Reacting to the allegation, Dana Airline issued a statement saying, ‘Aircraft doors cannot fall off without conscious efforts to open it’.
See the full statement below:
“Dana Air’s attention has been drawn to some online publication that the door of one of our aircraft fell off after landing and whilst taxing in Abuja today. We wish to state categorically that this could never have happened without a conscious effort by a passenger to open it.
By design, the emergency exit door of our aircraft are plug-type backed by pressure, which ordinary cannot fall off without tampering or conscious effort to open by a crew member or passenger.
We also wish to enlighten the author that, when an aircraft is airborne, it is fully pressurized and there was no way the seat or door could have been ‘shaking’ as insinuated.
A thorough inspection was however carried out on the said aircraft upon landing in Abuja, by our engineers and a team from the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), and no issue was reported. There was also no threat to safety at any point.
The flight was only delayed for 8 minutes as we needed to demonstrate to the regulators that the safety and comfort of our guests is at the centre of our operations.
We wish to apologize to our guests for any inconvenience such report may have caused and for the slight delay on the return service to Lagos.
A thorough investigation of the concerned passenger is ongoing. As one of the oldest and most experienced airline in Nigeria, we remain committed to global best practices.”
