Aircraft with 57 passengers, including Ladoja & CONFAB delegates, makes air return

Former Oyo State Governor Rasheed Ladoja, some serving Senators, members of the National Conference who were returning to Abuja yesterday were among those onboard an Overland aircraft with registration Number 5NBPE that had to make a quick detour after the pilot noticed a crack on the windshield of the aircraft. The aircraft took off from Ibadan Airport in Oyo state and was heading to Abuja when the pilot noticed a cracked windshield as they entered into Minna, Niger state airspace. Continue...

As a precautionary measure, he quickly made a detour to the Muritala Mohammed Airport Lagos to forestall any unfortunate incident.

The plane landed safely in Lagos and the passengers after several hours of waiting were conveyed into another plane which had returned from Enugu.

A statement released by Nigerian Airspace Management Authority confirmed the incident. The statement reads in part;

"There is no cause for alarm as the diversion  was precautionary and this conforms with the basic safety norms of the industry,” NAMA declared

Reacting to the development,Chairman, Airline Operators of Nigeria, Capt. Nogie Meggison, showed gratitude to God and also said that a broken windshield would not have caused a plane to crash.

“Let us thank God first that we did not have a crash, which technically would not have happened with a cracked outer pane of the aircraft. A lot of reasons can cause the crack and one of them is the impact of take-off or landing. The pilot might have returned to Lagos because that is where the operational headquarters of his company is located, and more importantly, that is the only place where the minor fault can be fixed. The pane is not an ordinary glass. It has several layers with mercury in-between.” he said.