On April 18th, an Aero contractor Port-Harcourt-Lagos bound flight recorded a smoke incident in the cabin that almost suffocated 52 adults and an infant on board.
The flight was said to have departed Port-Harcourt at 1608GMT, enroute Lagos. The incident was reported to have caused pandemonium on the aircraft as passengers were frightened.
The incident went viral on the social media with different claims that the aircraft caught fire, some say the smoke came from the baggage compartment while others were not sure what the cause of the smoke was.
In a response to the incident, management of Aero said it regrets any inconveniences the incident might have caused its esteemed passengers and assured it will get to the root cause of the matter.
Although the Management led by Captain Ado Sanusi, Chief Executive Officer of Aero has ordered for full scale investigation into the incident, preliminary reports has it that at 1645 GMT about 75NM to Lagos at 24,00ft, the cabin crew observed that the cabin was misty.
According to him, “This was reported to the Captain, who briefed the passengers accordingly assuring them of a safe landing in Lagos in a couple of minutes.Expectedly as announced by the pilot, normal descent was initiated into Lagos. While descending however, a passenger went into the lavatory, after which the lavatory smoke detector alarm came on. The cabin crew again reported this incident to the Captain and by this time the smoke was getting denser in the cabin”.
Captain Sanusi explaining further said, “Ready and armed with “Aft Cargo Smoke” indication in the flight deck, the crew carried out the smoke dispersal procedures and contacted air traffic control at 1655GMT, requesting for emergency support services and proceeded to Lagos, which is the airport with the full complement of emergency support. At this stage again, the cabin crew reassured the passengers and handed out wet towels to them as a precautionary measure for such incidents.
“The Captain also announced to the passengers to be calm as the smoke in question did not present any irritation or discomfort. The aircraft landed at 1703 GMT without any incident. Although the company engineers had carried out the routine systems checks, and reported all normal, Capt. Sanusi who has also reported the incident to the appropriate authorities in the country said another round of thorough investigation was ongoing”.