Pandemonium as Towed Aircraft Incites Fear of Crash in Lagos

Barely 10 days after the one year commemoration of the death of 153 passengers on board the ill-fated Dana Aircraft, which crashed at the Iju-Ishaga area of Lagos, pandemonium erupted Thursday, as rumours of another crash made the rounds in Lagos.

THISDAY checks revealed that the rumour of the plane crash began when the charred parts of an aircraft being towed by a truck stopped in front of Dapsey filling station, along the LASU-Igando road.

It was gathered that the American registered aircraft with registration number N972TF, actually belonged to the late Apostle Gabriel Oduyemi of Bethel Ministries and had long been parked at one of the Airport facilities till Wednesday night when it was eventually removed.

But when contacted, the spokesperson of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), South-west, Mr. Ibrahim Farinloye, dispelled the rumours, stressing that no such incident happened.

According to him, there was no crash rather the aircraft that elicited panic was being towed away from the airport according to a recent directive emanating from the presidency.

He said: “It was just the scrap of an aircraft being evacuated out of the airport, following the directive emanating from the office of the presidency to remove scraps and moribund aircrafts from the airport.

“We were there before the aircraft was towed. We were there to monitor proceedings and I can categorically tell you that our presence was not because of any plane crash rather to monitor.”

While adding that the exercise is an ongoing process that would rid the airport of moribund aircraft, he said it went unnoticed before because the evacuators had deliberately chosen to do it at night to avoid such public attention as well as to incite panic.

While urging Lagosians not to panic at such sights, he lamented that the uproar caused by the sight of the aircraft was one of the inherent dangers of social media where citizen journalism is rife.

Also speaking, the Managing Director, National Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), Mr. Nnamdi Udoh, described the purported plane crash as a hoax that should be disregarded.

In a statement made available to THISDAY, the agency said: “The attention of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) has been drawn to a purported plane crash yesterday at Igando, a suburb in Lagos State.

“We were inundated with phone calls and enquiries over a crash involving a small aircraft but there is nothing like that. It is a hoax because our system did not capture any missing plane. The aircraft was actually released to Captain M.J. Ekehinde, who will be using it for educational purposes in Badagry, Lagos. A cross-section of the wings was removed to ease transportation to its new location.

“While we appreciate the concern of the public on sighting the plane at an unusual site, we urge that people should always contact police and local government officials for proper information before spreading the news on incident involving any aircraft.”

Source: ThisDay