AirPeace’s Boeing 737-500 aircraft today, Saturday skidded off the runway over poor weather condition at the Port Harcourt airport.
Toyin Olajide, the chief operating officer of the airline, who confirmed the incident said the flight, P47291, which was reported to have taken off from Abuja and landed Port Harcourt at 3.42pm, attributed the incident to flooding of the runway.
” Our professional crew quickly recovered within seconds of the incident and the aircraft was successfully normalised. Our esteemed passengers on board the flight were calm during the incident and disembarked normally.
 
“Our teams of experts and the authorities are currently reviewing the incident and we will give our cooperation for a thorough exercise. We apologise to our esteemed passengers for the inconvenience caused them and wish to assure them that we will continue to prioritise their safety in all our operations, ” Olajide added.
Henrietta Yakubu, general manager, Corporate Affairs, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) also confirmed the development.
Yakubu said the aircraft skidded off the runway but the pilot was able to gain control of the situation by putting the aircraft to a stop as the undercarriage did not sink into the soil.
 She also disclosed that no one was injured and there was no major damage of the aircraft.
BusinessDay’s findings show that the affected aircraft has been grounded for inspection by concerned aviation authorities.

 

Due to the incident, Max Air was forced to cancel one of its flights, while Air Peace rescheduled two of its flights going to Lagos and Abuja till later in the evening on Saturday.

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A message passengers received the airline noted “Dear Esteemed Passenger, We apologize for the disruption to your travel today which was due to Operational Reason. Air Peace Ltd remains absolutely focused on passenger safety, as well as on-time departures. Please note that flight 7293, Portharcourt to Lagos will now depart at 8:30PM. We apologise for any inconvenience caused. For enquiries, please call 0700-35924-773223 or email: callcenter flyairpeace.com“

 

IFEOMA OKEKE

Ifeoma Okeke-Korieocha is the Aviation Correspondent at BusinessDay Media Limited, publishers of BusinessDay Newspapers. She is also the Deputy Editor, BusinessDay Weekender Magazine, the Saturday Weekend edition of BusinessDay. She holds a BSC in Mass Communication from the prestigious University of Nigeria, Nsukka and a Masters degree in Marketing at the University of Lagos. As the lead writer on the aviation desk, Ifeoma is responsible and in charge of the three weekly aviation and travel pages in BusinessDay and BDSunday. She also overseas and edits all pages of BusinessDay Saturday Weekender. She has written various investigative, features and news stories in aviation and business related issues and has been severally nominated for award in the category of Aviation Writer of the Year by the Nigeria Media Nite-Out awards; one of the Nigeria’s most prestigious media awards ceremonies. Ifeoma is a one-time winner of the prestigious Nigeria Media Merit Award under the 'Aviation Writer of the Year' Category. She is the 2025 Eloy Award winner under the Print Media Journalist category. She has undergone several journalism trainings by various prestigious organisations. Ifeoma is also a fellow of the Female Reporters Leadership Fellowship of the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism.

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