Aircraft doors cannot fall off without efforts to open them, Dana tells Nigerians

…as NCAA investigates incident

IFEOMA OKEKE

Dana Air yesterday debunked as falsehood, the alleging that the door of one of its aircraft fell off after landing and whilst taxing in Abuja earlier today.

Some online publications and twits had posting reports that the door of one of the airline’s aircraft fell off but the airline stated that the allegations were untrue and damaging and that such could never have happened without a conscious effort to open the door.

By design, the emergency exit doors of the aircraft are plug-type backed by pressure, which ordinarily cannot fall off without tampering or conscious effort to open by a crew member or passenger.

A statement by Dana Air of the alleged incident read,”We wish to state categorically that this could never have happened without a conscious effort by a passenger to open it.

“By design, the emergency exit doors of our aircraft are plug-type backed by pressure, which ordinary cannot fall off without tampering or conscious effort to open by a crew member or passenger.

“We also wish to enlighten the author that when an aircraft is airborne, it is fully pressurised and there is no way the seat or door could have been ‘shaking’ as insinuated.

“A thorough inspection was however carried out on the said aircraft upon landing in Abuja by our engineers and a team from the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), and no issue was reported. There was also no threat to safety at any point.

“The flight was only delayed for eight minutes as we needed to demonstrate to the regulators that the safety and comfort of our guests is at the centre of our operations.”

Sam Adurogboye, the General Manager, Public Relations, the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, (NCAA) told BusinessDay that Dana Air notified them of the incident when they landed.

“We sent a team from our end to check the airplane. The door has been worked on and everything is okay. We are carrying out further investigation to establish what led to the incident,” Adurogboye added.