Reactions, caution trail Overland Airways plane incident

Reactions  have started trailing the incident involving an aircraft belonging to Overland Airways which was reported to have suffered had problem with one of its engines.

According to the report, the plane scheduled for Ibadan from Abuja at 4.52 pm was about to take off when it started emitting smoke from one of its engines.

The passengers on board were said to have been hurriedly evacuated without any casualty.

Reacting to the panic created by the incident, an aircraft engineer whose experience spanned over 35 years, Alhaji Lukman Animashaun cautioned against rushing to the media anytime such an incident occur saying so far aircraft continue to take off and land, there is bound to be incidents.

He however said what matters most is the ability to handle such incidents without hampering on safety.

The incident according to Animashaun should not be misconstrued to say that flying is not safe in the country.

While insisting that such incidents is not peculiar to Nigeria, the aircraft engineer cited a similar incident in London recently where smoke was detected in an aircraft engine which he said has not stop flying.

According to him, Nigeria’s airspace is safe and therefore there should be no cause for alarm but he cautioned that passengers should avoid rushing to jump into conclusion each time there is such experience.

For Captain Adebayo Araba,a pilot whose flying experience spanned over thirty years, it is not easy for passengers to sit in the cabin and claim they notice smoke from an aircraft engine.

According to him, it may be a little malfunction from the air conditioning system of the plane which can easily be put off.

Again he cautioned against insinuating that it must be the engine of the aircraft that had problem.

Araba who said people should avoid unnecessary panic when incidents occur, said there should be no cause for alarm as an engine can conveniently land an aircraft safely since the other engine stands as alternative.

Another pilot who spoke under the condition of anonymity on the excuse that his employer did not permit him to speak, lamented the manner passengers blow issues out of proportion at any slightest provocation.

This development he said is not only scaring people away from air traveling but send wrong signals to other parts of the world about the country.

He however appealed to the traveling public not to get too emotional when incidents occur saying no airline will pray for bad things to happen.

The  Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) in a statement issued earlier on the incident had expressed regrets about what it called “the ugly incident of fire smoke alarm raised by an onboard  passenger in a flight involving Overland enroute IBadan from Abuja airport in the evening of Friday 7th February 2014.

Source:   http://www.tribune.com