500 hajj pilgrims escape crash as plane loses four rear tires

Posted by admin Headlines Monday, November 14th, 2011

About 500 returning pilgrims and crew members of a Max Air plane, on Monday in Kano escaped death, as the aircraft which was returning from Saudi Arabia lost four of its tyres while landing at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport (MAKIA)
Sources said the Jumbo jet, a Boeing 747, with registration No.5N-DBM and an inscription: “Matawalle Katsina Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, was on its way to Yola, before emergency landing that took place at the airport.

It was gathered that the pilot of the jumbo jet, an experienced hand managed to control the situation and landed the plane safely, despite its challenges. The passengers disembarked and waited for engineers to fix the fault.
Eye-witnesses revealed that a number of the frightened pilgrims were grateful to God for escaping without or any harm despite the strength of what happened.
At about 10 o/clock this morning, the airlines engineers were sighted around the aircraft fixing the burst tyres.

Media Consultant of Max Air, Alhaji Dahiru Ibrahim confirmed the incident but denied that the aircraft made an emergency landing.
“The aircraft lost four of its rear tyres, while landing. It was not an emergency landing as being speculated. The pilot decided to land at the Kano Airport, because air planes cannot land at night at the Yola Airport.”
Dahiru further explained that the pilot decided to land at the Mallam Aminu Kano Airport to wait till dawn to enable the pilot fly the passengers to their destination in Yola, the capital of Adamawa State.

-Sunwp_posts