The National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) has refuted the claim by some section of the media that a Max Air aircraft carrying over 500 pilgrims from Saudi Arabia to Nigeria crash-landed at Minna International Airport on Sunday to be false.
Alhaji Abdullahi Mohammad, the chairman of the commission disclosed this in a telephone conversation with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) from Makkah, Saudi Arabia on Sunday.
The chairman said the story was a fabricated one, as the commission conducted its findings through contacting the management of the airline concerned and some section of the passengers on board where all of them said such thing did not happen.
Mohammed said that it was an act of mischief because their finding revealed there was no emergency or crash landing by the said plane conveying passengers from Saudi back to Nigeria.
He said some passengers on board also disclosed they heard the news over the media claiming there was no such tragedy or whatsoever.
Similarly, Capt Ibrahim Dili, the captain of the plane and the management of MaxAir has also denied the report, however, said there was torrential rain and unstable wind while the plane was landing.
“The instrument landing system at the airport was epileptic with unreliable signals.
“Our pilots being determine, through their wealth of experience, knowledge of the terrain and environment to a safe landing and stop on the runway during which one of engines slightly brushed the runway.”
Dili said, the slight brush of the engine was due to the complex landing manoeuvres, characterised by the strong downdraft, however, the aircraft did not crash or skid off.
According to him, the aircraft taxied safely to the airport terminal and passengers disembarked without any problem.
Dili said officials of the Nigerian Civil Aviation (NCAA) and Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) inspected the aircraft and the runway and were satisfied with the outcome of their inspection.