Plane crash averted as bird-strike hits Arik flight

[TheNation]

A plane was averted in Calabar, Cross River State on Thursday when a birdstrike hit a 12.30 pm Lagos bound Arik aircraft  at the Margaret Ekpo International Airport in the state capital.

It was learnt that a bird flew into the engine  just as the plane was taking off.

Workers at the airport, who witnessed  the incident said the expertise of the pilot saved the  day as the plane, a Boeing 737 800 series, that was already speeding down the  runway had left the ground and was brought down immediately when the bird flew  into the engine.

Sources said that an equipment normally used to scare  the birds away before planes take off was not used that day.

The incident  left the passengers  shaken. They were also stranded at the airport as  there was no other plane to fly them to their destination immediately.  

Engineers were flown in to fix the affected plane at about  6pm.

Thereafter it was cleared for flying by the Nigerian Civil Aviation  Authority.

When eventually the plane was fixed, some of the passengers  refused to go with the plane that left the Calabar Airport at 9pm that  day.

It was gathered that out of nearly 100 passengers, less than 20  agreed to fly with that same plane to Lagos Thursday night.

Efforts to  get comments from Arik Air and airport officials proved abortive.



TheNation

[charlly007]

Wow,out of 100 passengers,less than 20 agreed to board the plane.I won't blame them because i would have done the same.I am happy for them,they escaped plane crash.