By DANIEL ETEGHE
There was tension in the aviation industry Saturday amid speculation that there was an incident involving a Qatar Airways Airbus 332 with 284 passengers onboard on its way to the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos from Doha, Quatar.
But investigations by Sunday Vanguard revealed that the aircraft had an emergency landing around 1:04 p.m. at MMIA because of low pressure in the tyres in the under carriage of the aircraft.
Words had earlier gone round that the aircraft suffered burst tyres.
A reliable source close to air traffic controllers at the MMIA, who refused to have his name in print, confirmed that the aircraft did not have burst tyres, rather the incident happened while the aircraft was about to land.
He pointed out that the tyres in the under carriage of the aircraft burst as it made contact with the runway due to low pressure.
According to him, while the Quatar Airways Airbus 332 aircraft took off in Doha Quatar, the pilot of the airline discovered that the tyres in the under carriage had low pressure; so he had to contact the airlines staff in their station in Nigeria to inform the ATC on duty to make precautionary arrangement to salvage the situation on landing.
He further noted that no sooner than the aircraft landed than it got stuck at the cargo side of the runway , preventing other planes from using the runway until it was toed with a push back tractor to the apron of the airport in order to disembark the passengers on board.
Sunday Vanguard gathered further that as soon as the aircraft landed, it was escorted by four fire tenders and one operational vehicle to the apron side of the airport in case of any fire outbreak.
Scores of fire fighters belonging to FAAN, Lagos State Fire Service and Julius Berger, and ambulance vehicles were mobilised at the cargo unit of the airport preparatory to the aircraft landing.
Even, officials of the Lagos State emergency management agency were fully mobilised to the airport in the event of a possible crash.
The panic-stricken passengers were reluctant to speak on their experience. They were rather were grateful to God for saving them from air crash.
Speaking to reporters at the cargo section of the Lagos international airport , the media officer of NEMA, Mr Ibrahim Farinloye, who led the emergency process on behalf of the agency, explained that they received a distress call from the pilot of the aircraft on approach to Lagos, that the aircraft had burst tyres on the rear side, which would require emergency management on landing.
Meanwhile, the Director General of Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Dr Harold Demuren, explained that the pilot of the aircraft took precautionary steps to land the plane.
He confirmed that the aircraft had low pressure in the tyres in the under carriage.
