Rattled by reports on Monday that its airline carrying pilgrims returning
from Saudi-Arabia crash-landed at Sultan Abubakar International Airport,
Sokoto, management of MaxAir Limited on Tuesday came in defense giving
their own account of the incident.
It dismissed the report describing it as “malicious, false and fabricated.”
MaxAir is owned by the Katsina-born business mogul, Dahiru Mangal.
Alhaji Ibrahim Dahiru, Director, Public Relations of MaxAir who spoke at
the Asthon Road headquarters of the airline in Kano said there was no iota
of truth in the report.
According to him, the 464 pilgrims were on board the Boeing 747 air craft
landed safely, “without any hitch in Sokoto,” adding that the airline has
completed the air lifting of the 41,568 pilgrims allocated to it.
Pointblanknews.com recalled that some national dailies reported that
about 464 pilgrims escaped death when the air craft made an emergency
landing in Sokoto airport.
However, Dahiru explained that, “what really happened was that as at the
time when the air craft was about landing, the pilot observed that the
light at the runaway was too bright for safe landing; and he subsequently
alerted the control tower about the development and urged the to regulate
the light on the runway.
“In the process of making the second attempt to land, he observed again
that the light was not bright enough and ordered the control tower to
slightly increase the light. It was during the correction in the runaway
light that the aircraft was hovering around the air to enable the
correction be effected and after the correction
had been effected the pilot landed safely with all the
pilgrims on board safe. So, you can see that there was nothing like
crash-landing,” Dahiru stated.
He also disclosed that after an hour, the same aircraft
took off from Sokoto airport to Malam Aminu Kano
International Airport (MAKIA)
He noted that had it been the aircraft was crash landed,
the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) could have been
aware and also taken necessary action, but nothing of such
happened, as the aircraft after an hour of landing took off
again to its base in Kano.
Speaking further , the spokesman of Maxi Air said it has
completed airlifted 41, 560 pilgrims allocated to it , while
all their luggages have also arrived and in good condition
He stated that the Maxi Air , airlifted pilgrims from 19
states of the country , amongst these were , Lagos , Bauchi, Kano ,
Katsina Sokoto, Jigawa , Zamfara and Kebbi .
Others states include, Kaduna, Plateau, Nassarawa, FCT, River adding that
99 percent pilgrims have been delivered with their luggage in good
condition