An Aero Contractors flight from Sokoto to Abuja made an emergency landing on Wednesday due to a faulty landing gear. The Boeing 737/500 aircraft was said to have touched down at the Sultan Abubakar III Airport, Sokoto, at about 2:45pm while the passengers were asked to disembark and wait at the departure lounge for further briefing.
Ismail Sani, one of the passengers, said the aircraft was unstable halfway into its journey, prompting the pilot to announce that the landing gear could not return after series of noise from the engines. Sani, a journalist based in Keffi, Nasarawa state, said the passengers and the crew members were alarmed over the incident.
He said after the plane had made the emergency landing, “the pilot thereafter came to the departure lounge to announce that the engineering team advised him to run a check on the gear and that he did so, but the test failed, urging the passengers to make alternative flight arrangements”.
The pilot, whose name could not be ascertained, was said to have insisted that it was a minor fault and to press home his point, he said he was flying the aircraft back to Abuja but without passengers.
Some of the passengers said the airline did not make another flight arrangement for them, saying Aero only refunded their money for the flight tickets.
Aircraft belonging to Dana and Arik airlines made similar emergency landing in recent weeks, in Lagos and Ghana, respectively.