The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has said the private aircraft that landed on a construction road near Asaba Airport last month did not suffer any mechanical failure, but mistakenly landed on the wrong surface after the pilots misidentified a nearby road as the airport’s runway.
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Keyamo disclosed this on Wednesday during an interview on TVC, saying the incident had gone beyond aviation safety and was now being investigated as a matter of national security.
According to him, the aircraft, a Bombardier Challenger CL-601 with registration number N989BC, had been cleared by the control tower to land at Asaba Airport before contact was lost.
“The tower in Asaba cleared them to land. After about two minutes, the tower called and said, ‘Where is your location? I can’t see you again. I can’t see you on the tarmac,’” Keyamo said.
He explained that the control tower could not locate the aircraft because it had landed on a nearby construction road instead of the airport runway.
“They said they had landed, so the tower asked, ‘Landed where?’ They said they landed on a roadway that they saw. It happened that it was a construction site very close to the airport. They saw a beautiful road there that looked like a runway and landed there,” he added.
The minister said the aircraft later took off from the location and flew to Lagos after dropping off its passengers, confirming that there was no mechanical fault.
“There was no mechanical failure, and that was why they could take off again,” he noted.
Keyamo said the circumstances surrounding the incident had attracted the attention of security agencies, including the Department of State Services.
He explained that the matter was no longer being treated only as an aviation incident because of the wider national security concerns involved.
“Those facts are before the Department of State Services. It has gone beyond aviation; it is now a security concern. Security agencies are looking into it, and there are reports they will first send to Mr President because it is a matter of national security,” he said.
The incident reportedly occurred on June 10, prompting the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority to ground the aircraft and suspend the Permit for Non-Commercial Flight of VMO Aero Limited, the operator of the aircraft.
The regulator also placed the flight crew under review after disclosing that the aircraft later departed the scene for Lagos without regulatory clearance, an action described as a violation of aviation regulations.
The Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau also deployed investigators to the scene and recovered the aircraft’s Cockpit Voice Recorder and Flight Data Recorder to determine the circumstances surrounding the incident.
VMO Aero had earlier said the crew discontinued what it described as an unstable approach before the aircraft eventually landed on a roadway running parallel to the airport’s runway.
The company said no injuries or property damage were recorded and maintained that it was cooperating fully with investigators.
Keyamo also addressed concerns raised by the International Air Transport Association over the high cost of airline operations in Nigeria.
He said President Bola Tinubu had approved the establishment of a committee made up of officials from the ministries of aviation and finance, tax authorities and the Airline Operators of Nigeria to review taxes, levies and other charges affecting airlines.
According to him, the committee is expected to recommend measures to reduce operating costs while ensuring the sustainability of the aviation sector.
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