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Obasanjo recounts how he escaped on Ethiopian Airline flight that nearly crashed in Lagos

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has recounted his experience while he was on board an Ethiopian Airline flight that almost crashed on Wednesday, May 29, 2019 at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo [Ventures Africa]

Obasanjo said “I remained calm and read papers while the scary situation occurred.”

While it all happened, I was reading my papers,” said Obasanjo. “One man, who was next to me, said, ‘Oga you no worry?’ I said, ‘Íf I worry, what will I do? If you are on a plane and you have a situation like this, why should you worry?’ I left everything in the hands of God.

According to Premium Times, Mr Obasanjo was on his way back to Nigeria from a stakeholders dialogue on continental trade and implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AFCFTA).

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After the program ended on Tuesday, May 28, 2091 in Addis Ababa, Obasanjo boarded an Ethiopian Airline, Boeing 777-300 flight with 394 persons on board, having had a false landing due to strong winds and a heavy downpour and was about to overshoot its runway before it returned to the air.

It later landed safely at the airport after spending about 10 minutes in the air.

I was on Ethiopian Airline. Rain just came down heavily,” Mr Obasanjo recalled.

“The pilot thought he could land. And he landed. He touched down. But I think he took a swift decision that he had to take off again.

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“So he took off. If he did not, I think he probably would have overrun the runway. He then apologised and said he would try to land again. He tried again, and we landed safely. And we all clapped.”

The ex-military head of state said the pilot first landed the plane at about 12:20 p.m. before the incident, but finally landed safely on return at 12:30 p.m.

He touched the ground. Then he took off and apologised and landed again at about 12.30. We spent just about 10 minutes in the air before we landed again,” he said.

Recently, an Ethiopian Airlines suffered a crash of its flight ET302 flying its B-737 MAX 800 aircraft en route Nairobi from Addis Ababa in March which killing all 157 persons on board. Including two Nigerians.

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