Air Peace reassures public of safety, airworthiness

Air Peace airline, yesterday, reassured its customers and members of the public of safe operations and airworthiness of its airplanes following recent incidences.

The airline gave assurance as it explained that the near-mishap recorded in Lagos, on Monday, was more likely to have been caused by the pilot’s error than the condition of the aircraft.

An Air Peace Boeing 737-300 plane made an emergency landing on the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) runway on Monday.

The near-mishap incident, just before noon, saw the plane losing its front wheel, and stationary towards the end of the runway until it was evacuated some six hours later. Onboard were 133 passengers and six crew members.

The airline last month had a similar incident when one of its aircraft overshot the Port Harcourt International Airport (PHIA) runway during a heavy downpour. On May 15 this year, an Air Peace Boeing 737-300 with registration number 5N-BUK made a hard landing in Lagos, on account of a sudden change in weather at the point of touchdown.

Safety Manager of Air Peace, Capt. Godfrey Ogbogu, Wednesday explained that the landing incident of flight P4 7191 at MMIA had nothing to do with the airworthiness of the airplane.

Ogbogu said: “Our preliminary in-house investigation indicates that in a bid to make a positive touchdown as required by procedures during such wet weather operations, the pilot landed the airplane harder than intended, which affected the nose-wheel.

“There are no issues with the airworthiness of the aircraft, as Air Peace Limited assures of best maintenance practices at all times and spares no resources to that effect.

“The management wishes to assure the flying public that Air Peace Limited has never stopped appraising its safety practices and procedures as demanded by industry standards,” he said.

The Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB), has commenced an investigation into the latest incident to uncover the actual cause of the near mishap.

One of the passengers on board the aircraft recounted the experience via social media yesterday. The account suggested that all went well during the flight until it was time to land.

“As we arrived in Lagos on Air Peace, the pilot (she was a woman, I was so proud) announced that we will be landing at international tarmac because of visibility issues.

“Some minutes later, it seems the plane started nose-diving on a fast track. And she in her expertise applied control. Then, it picked up speed and bang, bang.

“We dropped from the sky to the hard ground and the ceiling of the plane dropped. Children crying, people screening the blood of Jesus! Some screamed my mummy. It was hard. My life flashed before me.”

She added that the pilot did much to calm nerves until emergency responders arrived “52 minutes later.”