250 lives saved as two aircrafts collide at Lagos Airport

On Friday what would have been another airport tragedy was averted at the Murtala Muhammad Airport Terminal 2 in Lagos when two Airbus 330 had a ground collision resulting wings brushing and partial damage to the two aircraft. The two 330 Airbuses had on board about 250 passengers, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) has reported.

Eye witness account said one of the aircraft was taxiing from the runway to the terminal, for passengers to disembark while the other aircraft was preparing to take off to Port-Harcourt from the same terminal. He said:

The pilot may have been wrongly directed by control tower marshals who made the pilot taxed to the wrong part of the apron. The Port Harcourt bound aircraft was parked at Gate 4 while the arriving aircraft was bound for Gate 3 of the terminal. The marshals misdirected the arriving aircraft to the same Gate as the parked aircraft which led to the two wings brushing each other.

On assessing the damage on the two aircrafts, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority ordered passengers to disembark the Port-Harcourt bound aircraft and the two aircrafts were grounded leaving the Part-Harcourt heading passengers stranded after tickets refund.

While confirming the averted tragedy, the NCAA in a statement by its General Manager, Public Affairs, Fan Ndubuoke said: No passenger was hurt and that the incident had been referred to the Accident Investigation Bureau for further investigation, NCAA is committed to safety and security of passengers at all times. You will recall that similar incident occurred in the same airport, July this year.