The management of Aero Contractors says it has ordered an investigation into an incident involving one of its flights from Port Harcourt to Lagos on Tuesday.
A video surfaced online on Wednesday morning showing panic-stricken passengers praying in a smoke-filled aircraft belonging to the airline.
According to the airline, the flight, NG316, departed the Port Harcourt airport on April 18, 2017 at 4:08pm en route Lagos with 52 adults and one infant on board.
The airline said in a statement signed by its spokesperson, Mr. Simon Tumba, that the pilot and the crew displayed professionalism in handling the situation.
It said, “The management, led by the Chief Executive Officer of Aero, Capt. Ado. Sanusi, has ordered full-scale investigation into the incident; preliminary reports have it that at 16:45 GMT, about 75 nautical miles to Lagos at 24,000 feet, the cabin crew observed that the cabin was misty. 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. The cabin crew again reported this incident to the captain and by this time, the smoke was getting denser in the cabin.
“Ready and armed with ‘Aft Cargo Smoke’ indication in the flight deck, the crew carried out the smoke dispersal procedures and contacted air traffic control at 16:55 GMT, requesting for emergency support services and proceeded to Lagos, which is the airport with the full complement of emergency support. At this stage again, the cabin crew reassured the passengers and handed out wet towels to them as a precautionary measure for such incidents.”
The airline said the captain also announced to the passengers to be calm as the smoke in question did not present any irritation or discomfort.
It added that the aircraft landed at 17:03 GMT without any incident.
“Although the company engineers had carried out the routine systems checks and reported all normal, Sanusi, who has also reported the incident to the appropriate authorities in the country, said another round of thorough investigation was ongoing,” the statement said.
The airline stated that it regretted inconveniences the incident might have caused its passengers and gave an assurance that it would get to the root of the incident.
