Lagos-Abuja bound Boeing 737 aircraft with registration number ZQ 2323 belonging to Azman Air on Thursday made air return over fire eruption from Shisha.
The aircraft which was carrying about 135 passengers had to make an air return 10 minutes into the flight after fire alarm alerted the crew who rushed to put off the fire.
According to a passenger on the aircraft who craved anonymity, a female passenger dressed in a black hijab was said to have smoked shisha in the lavatory of the aircraft.
“The female passenger was caught by a cabin crew who stopped her but five minutes after, smoke erupted from the lavatory, forcing the pilot to make an air return,” the passenger said.
The passenger further disclosed that the cabin crew used fire extinguisher to put off the fire but fire erupted again, forcing the pilot to return to Lagos.
On touch down at the Murtala Muhammed local airport, fire trucks were mobilised to put off the smoke entirely.
After the incident, the pilot in command requested for a comprehensive audit to ensure the aircraft could still fly.
The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) carried out audit and intergrity test on the aircraft in a bid to certified its air worthiness.
However, some passengers who were worried over what happened refused to travel on the same aircraft.
Adamu Abdullahi, the director of consumer protection who confirmed the incident said in a statement that at 07:30hrs, passengers were asked to disembark from the aircraft after the captain noticed a snag on Aircraft with reg no 5N-HAI.
He said surprisingly azman asked the said passenger to wait at the arrival hall from 07:30hrs up till midday without any information about the flight (reason why morning shift didn’t capture it in their report)!!
“Passengers became agitated and blocked arriving pax from claiming their baggage from the carousel. Attention of Consumer Protection Officer, on duty was called to the scene were we invited avsec who came and calmed the pax down.
“There was no senior azman personnel to talk to. The airline personnel had all disappeared and all calls to their cell phones were left unanswered! Leaving passengers at both arrival, ticketing and at the foot of the aircraft making too much trouble that could not be handled!! “
“The aggrieved pax took away the two laptops at both ticketing and checking in counters and stopped checking in of azman flight to MIU. The consumer protection official on duty had to plead to the passengers and retrieve the two laptops taken by the aggrieved passenger,” Abdullahi said.
He disclosed that the aircraft finally departed at 1342hrs with 129 passengers on board. Six passengers declined to board and were refunded.
IFEOMA OKEKE
