5th October, 2013
Simon Ateba/Aviation correspondent
Nigerian aviation authorities on Saturday confirmed that a plane with 512 souls on board crash-landed in the country’s northern city of Sokoto, damaging airport equipment and ending with burst tyres.
The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, said in a statement that the plane, a Boeing 747-300 with Reg 5N-JRM which was operated by Kabo airlines “damaged some Instruments Landing System (ILS) and came to a stop with deflated tyres.
“The agency said the pilot disobeyed instructions from the control tower and the incident is still being investigated.”Preliminary reports indicate that the control tower gave the pilot clearance to land on Runway 08 but the captain, opted to use Runway 26, for reasons yet to be ascertained,” said Yakubu Dati, FAAN image maker.All the 494 passengers and 18 crew members were safe after landing, officials said, adding that the incident took place at 9 p.m. on Friday.”
The aircraft which departed from Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano was en route Saudi Arabia when it had a stop-over at the Sokoto airport for passenger pickup,” Dati said.He said the airline has since made arrangements for another aircraft to pick the passengers to complete their journey to Saudi Arabia.
Later today, all the pilgrims were flown to Saudi Arabia.
Mr Madu Bukar, the Acting Manager of the Sokoto airport, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Sokoto on Saturday that the intending pilgrims departed for Saudi Arabia around 5 p.m. on Saturday.
Bukar said that another aircraft, with registration number 200-3, took off from the airport with 537 intending pilgrims
Gov. Saidu Dakingari of Kebbi, his wife, Zainab, and 48 intending pilgrims from Kebbi are among those aboard the aircraft.
Meanwhile, the last batch of intending pilgrims from Sokoto State has been transported from the airport by Max Airlines.
The Boeing 747 aircraft left the Sokoto airport around 4 p.m. on Saturday with 484 prospective pilgrims from Sokoto South Local Government Area and some state officials.
BRM/MO/OOK