IRS airplane collides with truck at Lagos airport

According to Channels TV, a Kano-bound IRS Airlines plane departing the Lagos airport on Wednesday morning collided with an abandoned truck beside the taxiway, forcing the pilot to cancel the flight.

Read full report after the jump.....

The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN)’s sewage tanker was on official assignment when it got stuck after fallen into drainage at about 8.30pm on Tuesday night in the taxiway of General Aviation Terminal (GAT), Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos caused a minor damage to the aircraft.

The aircraft, a Folker 100, was scheduled to operate flight LVB 3306 out of Lagos to Kano flight with a transit stop at Abuja.

Information from the Airports Authority and the airline said no passenger or crew member on board the aircraft sustain any injury.

A statement by the Managing Director of IRS, Yemi Dada, confirmed the incident.

The statement quoted Mr Dada as saying “This morning our flight LVB 3306 taxied out on a Lagos to Kano flight with a transit stop at Abuja. The aircraft taxied out at 7:48am with 91 passengers. While taxing on the taxi way the Captain observed a FAAN truck in a ditch. There were no marshals around it neither was there any marking to indicate that it encroached into the taxi way. There was no Notice To Air Men (NOTAM) issued to that effect as well.”

He added, “The captain continued on his taxi and the wing tip hit a protrusion from the truck towards the rear of the truck. This made the captain request a return to ramp from the tower and also notify the tower of the incident and the danger posed by the truck.

“The passengers were disembarked and accommodated in another aircraft which departed Lagos at 10:15am. The incident has been reported to Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority and we await the clearance of the NCAA to effect repairs and return the aircraft to service.”

The General Manager Corporate Communications, FAAN, Yakubu Dati who also confirmed the incident said it had been reported to relevant aviation agencies, Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) and the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) whose officials immediately reported to the scene of the incident for on-the-spot assessment of the incident while engineers from Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria were placed on stand-by to evacuate the stuck sewage tanker as soon as preliminary investigations by both agencies concluded.