Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has narrated how an Ethiopian Airlines flight he boarded from Addis Ababa to Lagos almost crashed on Wednesday.
Obasanjo alongside 393 passengers and crew members escaped death after a Boeing 777-300 aircraft conveying them overshot the first touchline while trying to land at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos.
The aircraft with tail number ET-901 was said to have immediately taken off after the failed landing and hovered over parts of Lagos and Ogun states for about 20 minutes before landing successfully. The incident was attributed to rain and heavy wind at the MMIA.
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Narrating his experience to Premium Times, the former Nigerian president said, “he remained calm and read papers while the scary situation occurred.”
“While it all happened, I was reading my papers,” said Mr Obasanjo. “One man, who was next to me, said, ‘Oga you no worry?’ I said, ‘Íf I worry, what will I do? If you are on a plane and you have a situation like this, why should you worry?’ I left everything in the hands of God.”
Obasanjo had attended a meeting on continental trade and implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AFCFTA) in Addis Ababa and was returning to the country when the incident took place.
Obasanjo added, “I was on Ethiopian Airline. Rain just came down heavily.
“The pilot thought he could land. And he landed. He touched down. But I think he took a swift decision that he had to take off again.
“So he took off. If he did not, I think he probably would have overrun the runway. He then apologised and said he would try to land again. He tried again, and we landed safely. And we all clapped.
“He touched the ground. Then he took off and apologised and landed again at about 12.30. We spent just about 10 minutes in the air before we landed again,” he said.
The incident is coming after an aircraft belonging to Ethiopian Airlines crashed few moments after taking off on March 10 from Addis Ababa, claiming 157 lives – including those of two Nigerians.