NCAA clears plane whose door fell off, probes incident

The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has cleared the Dana Air aircraft, whose door reportedly fell off while landing, as safe for operation, and set up a four-man panel to investigate the incident.

A passenger, identified as Ola Brown, had expressed shock on Wednesday, February 7, 2018, about an unstable emergency door that fell off while the airplane was landing.

Tweeting as @NaijaFlyingDr, Brown posted, "Flew Dana. Exit door was unstable throughout the flight. As we touched down, it fell off. Scary stuff."

In response, the General Manager, Public Affairs, NCAA, Sam Adurogboye, said the committee will investigate the incident.

He said, "The affected plane has been certified safe and returned to service but we have set a four-man team to investigate what actually happened. If the plane was faulty, it would not have been cleared to take off."

Passenger compromised door - Dana

In response to the public storm Brown's complaint generated, Dana responded in a press statement yesterday to clarify that the emergency door could not have fallen off if it had not been opened by a passenger.

The airline's Media and Communications Manager, Kingsley Ezenwa, said, "Dana Air's attention has been drawn to some online publication that the door of one of our aircraft fell off after landing and while taxing in Abuja today.

"We wish to state categorically that this could never have happened without a conscious effort by a passenger to open it.

"By design, the emergency exit door of our aircraft are plug-type backed by pressure, which ordinarily cannot fall off without tampering or conscious effort to open by a crew member or passenger.

"We also wish to enlighten the author that when an aircraft is airborne, it is fully pressurised and there was no way the seat or door could have been 'shaking' as insinuated."

He further said a thorough inspection was carried out on the said aircraft upon landing in Abuja, by the airline's engineers and a team from the NCAA, and no problems were reported.