Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has begun investigation into the smoke in an Aero Contractors aircraft enroute Lagos from Port Harcourt.
NCAA’s General Manager, Public Relations, Sam Adurogboye, confirmed the development to the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos yesterday.
The Aero Contractors flight NG316 was engulfed in smoke about 20 minutes after take-off, causing panic among the passengers.
The situation prompted the deployment of fire-fighting trucks to the Murtala Mohammed Airport 2, Lagos, to curtail any fire when the plane carrying 52 adults and one infant finally landed.
Adurogboye said the NCAA had been notified of the incident, adding that the aircraft was immediately grounded for investigations.
“Our team of investigators is currently working to find out what caused the smoke because that is part of the responsibility of the NCAA,” he said.
Similarly, the media consultant to Aero Contractors, Simon Tumba, confirmed that the airline’s management, led by Ado Sanusi, had ordered for full scale investigation into the incident.
Tumba, in a statement, said the management also commended the pilot and the entire crew for the professionalism they displayed in handling the situation.
“There have been different accounts of the incidents with some claiming that the smoke came from the baggage compartment while other allude to all manner of unverified claims.
“But the management of Aero said it regrets any inconveniences the incident might have caused its esteemed passengers and assured it will get to the root cause of the matter,” he said.
He said this was reported to the captain, who briefed the passengers accordingly, assuring them of a safe landing in Lagos in a couple of minutes.
“Expectedly as announced by the pilot, normal descent was initiated into Lagos. While descending however, a passenger went into the lavatory, after which the lavatory smoke detector alarm came on.
Tumba said the aircraft landed at 1703 GMT and the company engineers had carried out the routine systems checks, and reported all normal.
