Overland Airways flight from Lagos to Asaba International Airport was involved in a near crash Monday due to poor weather conditions.

The aircraft was forced to land twice at the Benin City airport before making a third, successful attempt in Asaba airport.

A passenger, who preferred not to be named, was quoted as saying that each time the aircraft landed in Benin, they prevented the passengers from disembarking, claiming that the airport authorities in Benin would charge the airline landing fees which they don't have.

After calming down the passengers for a while, the pilot hurriedly took off from Benin City to make another landing attempt in Asaba. The aircraft which left Lagos at 1:00 pm for the hour-long trip finally landed at its Asaba destination at 4:04 p.m. The rough landing took place after the pilot had already informed the fearful passengers that the aircraft would be returning to Lagos.

When The Moment contacted the Director General of Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Dr. Harold Demuren for confirmation, he said that there was no accident and that there was nothing like that.

This is the second time in less than two days this airline is experiencing such incidence. At the weekend, there were reports that the same aircraft also escaped another plane crash at the same Asaba International airport and the plane was forced to go and land at the Benin Airport following communication equipment failure at the troubled airport.

The pilot of the fully loaded commercial aircraft with registration number 5N-BND, which had come in from Lagos, was said to have lost contact with the Asaba airport tower and as a resultcould not be guided for landing.

According to some of the passengers who spoke on condition of anonymity the aircraft hovered around the airport for about three hours, without successfully contacting the control tower. His efforts to land being unsuccessful, the pilot took the plane to the Benin Airport where he landed.

It was also gathered that after the landing, the plane remained at the Benin Airport for another two hours before it took off again, but the passengers, in fear of their lives, refused to board it.

Some of the distressed passengers have attributed the poor situation to the state of the uncompleted airport calling on Nigeria's aviation authorities to look into the situation at the Asaba Airport in order to avert the death of passengers attempting to use the airport.

It would be recalled that in July this year, the Delta State Governor, Emmanuel Uduaghan drafted the new Minister of Aviation, Mrs. Stella Adaeze Oduah to Asaba where the minister expressed satisfaction with the high standard of facilities at the Asaba Airport, declaring that the airport was fit for use

http://allafrica.com/stories/201110250923.html