Delta Air plane catches fire mid air, makes emergency landing

Wed, Feb 14, 2018 | By publisher


Aviation

DELTA Air plane in the early hours of Wednesday, made emergency landing at the Muritala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos shortly after taking off when the pilot of the plane noticed that the left engine of the aircraft caught fire mid air in-flight.

The pilot of the Delta Air flight DL055 (ATL)ETG immediately contacted the control tower at the Lagos Airport to prepare for emergency landing. All emergency aviation officials were immediately contacted and fire fighters placed on standby. After landing successfully, all the passengers aboard were quickly evacuated via the emergency sliding door within few minutes.

Although there is no death recorded as at the time of filing this report but quite a number of crew and passenger casualties were recorded and have been taken to Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, LASUTH, Ikeja, Air Force Base Clinic and Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, Medical Centre for speedy medical attention.

The incident led to the closure of the runway as the Delta Aircraft was on the Runway for over one hour thereby preventing KLM, Lufthansa and Air France already positioned for takeoff from departing. The aircraft was later towed with a push back truck to the open parking bay close to Boarding gate E 63.

The remaining casualty – free passengers have been taken to a Hotel after the flight was announced cancelled and rescheduled for a date yet to be specified and communicated.

Meanwhile, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, has said it would investigate the emergency landing by the aircraft. Sam Adurogboye, general manager, public relations, NCAA, disclosed that NCAA had been notified of the incident, stressing that it was the duty of regulatory authority to investigate such occurrences in order to ascertain what led to it.

He noted that the pilot acted in accordance with the Standard and Recommended Practices (SARPs) by making an air return immediately the left engine of the aircraft caught fire in-flight.

A statement signed by the United States carrier’s media consultant in Nigeria, Tope Awe, on Wednesday, said the A330-200 had an issue with one of its two engines. “The flight landed safely and customers exited the aircraft on the runway via emergency slides.

“Airport fire authorities met the aircraft upon arrival. Delta’s customers were bussed back to the terminal. Delta is aware of five customers reporting non-critical injuries as a result of the evacuation.

“Delta teams have provided overnight hotel accommodations to customers and will rebook customers on an alternate Delta aircraft Wednesday afternoon. “The safety of Delta’s customers and crew members is always our top priority,” Awe said. – Vanguard

– Feb.  14, 2018 @ 11:15 GMT |

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