A plane crash was averted on Friday November 16 2012 when an Arik air flight from Lagos was about landing at Osubi airport Warri. The near disaster occurred some time in the early afternoon. According to a witness who boarded the flight, the Arik flight was just about landing on the runway when suddenly it took off again and narrowly missed another plane (possibly a private jet) that was coming in the opposite direction. The pilot was said to have attributed the incident to problems with the Air Traffic Control. The Arik plane landed safely minutes later after the runway was cleared. The pilot in taking a quick decision to take off again averted what could have been a disaster!

This is very disheartening especially when you think of places like Chicago's O'Hare International Airport (the world's busiest airport) where an airplane takes off or lands every 37 seconds! Warri Osubi airport may not even have up to 10 flights in a day yet they can’t handle it!

This report raises so many questions:
What on earth were the air traffic controllers doing?
Why has this report gone unpublished?
What was another plane doing on the runway at that time?
Who was at fault. the Arik plane, the other plane or the ATC?
What is being done to ensure such is not repeated?

The source of this info is someone who was on that flight. Any witness here on Nairaland?

Na today? Nextttttttt!

megainvest: A plane crash was averted on Friday November 16 2012 when an Arik air flight from Lagos was about landing at Osubi airport Warri. The near disaster occurred some time in the early afternoon. According to a witness who boarded the flight, the Arik flight was just about landing on the runway when suddenly it took off again and narrowly missed another plane (possibly a private jet) that was coming in the opposite direction. The pilot was said to have attributed the incident to problems with the Air Traffic Control. The Arik plane landed safely minutes later after the runway was cleared. The pilot in taking a quick decision to take off again averted what could have been a disaster!

This is very disheartening especially when you think of places like Chicago's O'Hare International Airport (the world's busiest airport) where an airplane takes off or lands every 37 seconds! Warri Osubi airport may not even have up to 10 flights in a day yet they can’t handle it!

This report raises so many questions:
What on earth were the air traffic controllers doing?
Why has this report gone unpublished?
What was another plane doing on the runway at that time?
Who was at fault. the Arik plane, the other plane or the ATC?
What is being done to ensure such is not repeated?

The source of this info is someone who was on that flight. Any witness here on Nairaland?

Runway incursions do occur in the West, and a notable crash occurred back in the 1980's, right at sunset, when a Boeing 737 passenger jet, whose pilots were blinded by the setting sun on final approach into Los Angeles International Airport Runway 24R, landed right on top of an Embraer commuter jet that had been accidentally cleared for takeoff on the same runway by an inattentive air traffic control lady.

Human error has and will again lead to air mishaps and runway incursion crashes, but with decreasing frequency in the future, as new ground radar technology to avert such incidents enters into widespread use around the world. The Arik air pilot aborted the landing in the nick of time to avoid the fiery fate of that doomed 737 at Los Angeles years prior. He displayed superb airmanship with his textbook missed-approach, go-around, approach and landing sequence, and for that he deserves a pay raise at the very least.

I once had same experience on my way to Canada some years back, I was actually taken aback when I heard the engines roaring back to life after almost touching the runway. It was a KLM flight and I am not sure it was published, it was the pilot that informed us onboard, this type of shit happens, just that our airports are less busy compared to where I experienced it.