Reps probe Dana Airline mishaps

The House of Representatives has resolved to probe the recent runway overshoot and crashlanding involving two Dana Airline planes.

The House also resolved to constitute an ad-hoc panel, which will invite officials of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) the Federal Airport Authority (FAAN) and Nigerian Meteorology Agency (NIMET) over the incidents.

Adopting a motion by Prestige Ossy (PDP, Abia) the House said relevant stakeholders would explain their roles in the happenings.

Leading debate on the motion, Ossy said on June 3, 2012, after passengers had boarded a Dana aircraft in Lagos, “It was allegedly delayed from take-off as aeronautic engineers discovered some faults and changed the hydraulic fluid under the left side under carriage tyre mechanism.”

He said in the same year, 153 passengers lost their lives when a Dana Air flight 0992 crashed into a two-storey building in IjuIshaga, a densely populated area of Lagos state.

Only last month, he said, another Dana Aircraft number 9J0363, flying from Abuja to Port Harcourt crash-landed at the Port Harcourt International Airport but no casualty was recorded.

“This was an incident which occurred due to heavy downpour accompanied with a strong wind and storm in Port Harcourt,” he said.

He added that on February 21, yet another Dana aircraft overshot the runway at the Port Harcourt Airport soon after it touched down, noting that another of Dana’s aircraft had its door opened, while landing at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.