Managements of Air Peace Limited, Accident Investigation Bureau and Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority ( NCAA) have said that there was no air crash in Ilorin or any part of the country as reported in some media yesterday.
Air Peace Limited, owner of Air Peace Airlines insisted that the reports in some media of involvement of one of its airplanes in a crash at Ilorin Airport was not true and misleading.
Though, the airline in a statement made available to aviation journalists today, confirmed that one of its aircraft used to operate a flight from Abuja to Ilorin had a minor tyre glitch after landing and while taxiing to the apron on Friday, however said it was not a serious incident.
“The attention of Air Peace has been drawn to misleading online reports purporting that our Ilorin bound B737-500 aircraft with registration number 5N-BQR from Abuja, was involved in a crash in Ilorin, around 10am on July 23, 2021
“For the records, no such thing happened. The reports misrepresented and exaggerated the facts. We can confirm that the aircraft in question landed safely but had a minimal tyre burst while taxing. This debunks all the mischievously headlined reports circulating online, which should be disregarded.
“Our aircraft neither crashed nor crash landed in illorin or in any place for that matter. This kind of sensationalism is bad and was intended to cause panic in the minds of the flying public.
“It was duly reported to the authorities and passengers disembarked seamlessly. The tyres have, however, been fixed and aircraft is intact,” the airline said.
Similarly in its statement, Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB-N) confirmed that the incident; saying it doesn’t worth investigating and has since handed over the aircraft to the operator.
Spokesman for AIB-N, Tunji Oketunbi in a statement how however said the Ilorin airport was closed to flight operations because of the delay in recovering the aircraft from runway.
“AIB Safety investigators did an evaluation of the occurrence and decided NOT to investigate. The aeroplane has been released to the Operator (Air Peace). The delay in opening the airport is down to the recovery of the aeroplane from the Runway by FAAN and Airpeace. The aeroplane had a burst tyre on landing,” AIB-N said.
Also speaking in the same vein, the regulatory authority, Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) through its General Manager Public Relations, Sam Adurogboye also confirmed that there was no accident at the airport.
“The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority wishes to state categorically that there is no air accident involving Air Peace or any airlines in the country.
“As a matter of fact, the said aircraft which departed from Abuja successfully landed in Ilorin. It only experienced tyre burst in the course of taxing.
“Meanwhile, all the 66 passengers and 6 crew members onboard were disembarked without any issues whatsoever on the same day being July 23, 2021.”
