Keyamo explains Asaba aircraft incident, says pilots mistook construction road for runway

The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has said the private aircraft that landed on a construction road near Asaba Airport last month did not suffer any mechanical failure, but mistakenly landed on the wrong surface after the pilots misidentified a nearby road as the airport’s runway.

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Mr Keyamo disclosed this on Wednesday during an interview on TVC, saying the incident has now gone beyond aviation safety and is being investigated as a matter of national security.

According to him, the aircraft, a Bombardier Challenger CL-601 with registration number N989BC, had been cleared by the control tower to land at Asaba Airport before contact was lost.

“The tower in Asaba cleared them to land. After about two minutes, the tower called and said, ‘Where is your location? I can’t see you again. I can’t see you on the tarmac,’” Mr Keyamo said.

He explained that controllers could not locate the aircraft because it had landed on a nearby construction road rather than the airport runway.

“They said they had landed, so the tower asked, ‘Landed where?’ They said they landed on a roadway that they saw. It happened that it was a construction site very close to the airport. They saw a beautiful road there that looked like a runway and landed there,” he added.

According to the minister, the aircraft later departed the location for Lagos after dropping off its passengers.

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“There was no mechanical failure, and that was why they could take off again,” he noted.

Mr Keyamo said the circumstances surrounding the incident have attracted the attention of security agencies.

He said the matter is no longer being treated solely as an aviation occurrence.

“Those facts are before the Department of State Services (DSS). It has gone beyond aviation; it is now a security concern. Security agencies are looking into it, and there are reports they will first send to Mr President because it is a matter of national security,” he explained.

The minister did not provide further details on the security investigation.

Earlier investigations

PREMIUM TIMES earlier reported that the incident occurred on 10 June, prompting the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to ground the aircraft and suspend the operator, VMO Aero Limited’s Permit for Non-Commercial Flight (PNCF).

The regulator also placed the flight crew under review after disclosing that the aircraft later departed the scene for Lagos without obtaining regulatory clearance, an action it described as a violation of aviation regulations.

The Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB) subsequently deployed investigators to the scene and recovered the aircraft’s Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) and Flight Data Recorder (FDR) to determine what happened during the flight.

VMO Aero later disclosed that the crew had discontinued what it described as an unstable approach before the aircraft eventually landed on a roadway running parallel to the airport’s runway. The company maintained that no injuries or property damage were recorded and said it was cooperating fully with investigators.

Other concerns

Speaking during the interview, Mr Keyamo also addressed concerns by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) over the high cost of operating airlines in Nigeria.

He said President Bola Tinubu has approved the establishment of a committee comprising officials from the ministries of aviation and finance, tax authorities and the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) to review taxes, levies and other charges affecting airlines.

According to the minister, the committee is expected to recommend measures that will reduce operating costs while ensuring the sustainability of Nigeria’s aviation industry.