Some passengers onboard Azman Air Boeing 737-500 with Registration Marks SN-SYS, which left from Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Abuja to Murtala Mohammed Airport Lagos which lost four tyres on landing on 16th of February believe that bad landing on worn-out tyres may have been the cause of the near-fatal incident involving the aircraft.
The incident happened around 5pm local time in Lagos when the airline from Abuja to Lagos began to experience landing challenges.
One of the passengers who spoke to LeadingReporters on condition that his name would not be mentioned said that he started feeling that something was wrong when the pilot kept hovering around the airport. He said that the pilot made the first attempt at landing, but had to pull up the plane again, citing bad weather condition.
The passenger who boarded the plane said that the landing was so sudden and nerve-cracking that you would know that there was something amiss. He frowned at what he described as desperate moves by the owners of the airline to stop them from taking pictures, insisting that it infringed their right to be well informed about what happened.
“Trying to force us not to take pictures was a desperate move by the airliner. Possibly, there was something they wanted to hide. It was the height of insensitivity to treat passengers who narrowly escaped being perished the way they did. They seemed more concerned in keeping their names than caring about the passengers.
“We thought we were not going to make it. In fact, I started noticing that something was wrong when the pilot began to hover around the airport. He made the first attempt at landing and suddenly pulled up the plane. I knew something was wrong. He announced inclement weather, but it seemed something much more than that.
The plane almost land-crashed. When we were evacuated, something told me that the problem may be with the tyre. I looked at the tyres. I counted four burst tyres. But beyond that, you’d notice that some of the tyres are so badly worn out before the burst. The pictures are here to speak for themselves.
The aircraft, was said to have 49 passengers on board and 6 crew members. It had 4 burst tyres on landing on Runway 18R of Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria.
All effort to get the management of Azman Air to address the allegations were unsuccessful as the person who spoke to our Lead Investigation Editor said he was not in a position to answer and could not link LeadingReporters to Azman Communication Department.