Dana door incident: NCAA set up probe panel

Maureen Ihua-Maduenyi

The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority says it has set up a four-man team to investigate the alleged incident involving Dana Air’s flight on Wednesday.

A passenger had taken to Twitter to complain that the door of an aircraft belonging to the airline fell off upon landing in Abuja.

The passenger, Ola Brown, with Twitter handle, @NaijaFlyerDr, had tweeted, “Flew Dana. Exit door was unstable throughout the flight. As we touched down, it fell off. Scary stuff.”

The General Manager, Public Affairs, NCAA, Mr. Sam Adurogboye, said the agency was working to ascertain what actually happened.

“The affected plane has been certified safe and returned to service but we have set a four-man team to investigate what actually happened. If the plane was faulty, it would not have been cleared to take off,” he stated.

In a statement signed by its Media and Communications Manager, Kingsley Ezenwa, Dana Air said the door was tampered with.

The statement read in part, “Dana Air’s attention has been drawn to some online publication that the door of one of our aircraft fell off after landing and while taxing in Abuja today. We wish to state categorically that this could never have happened without a conscious effort by a passenger to open it.

“By design, the emergency exit door of our aircraft are plug-type backed by pressure, which ordinarily cannot fall off without tampering or conscious effort to open by a crew member or passenger. We also wish to enlighten the author that when an aircraft is airborne, it is fully pressurised and there was no way the seat or door could have been ‘shaking’ as insinuated.”

The airline added that a team of its engineers and others from the NCAA had inspected the aircraft and no issue was reported.

“There was also no threat to safety at any point. A thorough investigation is ongoing,” the airline added.

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