The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority has grounded Rano aircraft, flight 5N-BZY, after conducting an emergency landing at the Sokoto Airport due to the failure of its engine.
An X user @emmaikume, while narrating the incident, said, “Something quite intriguing, or rather disturbing, happened today in Sokoto. One of the engines of a Rano Air aircraft en route from Kano to Sokoto caught fire mid-air. Thankfully, the pilot managed to land the plane safely in Sokoto using the other engine.”
“However, shockingly, after just a few ‘touch-ups,’ the management of Rano Air cleared the same aircraft to fly passengers back to Kano. What kind of negligence is this? Unfortunately, just a few minutes after takeoff, the aircraft couldn’t hold up any longer and was forced to make a U-turn back to Sokoto Airport,” he narrated.
However, the Director of Consumer Protection and Public Affairs, Michael Achimugu, on his X handle, said the Directorate of Airworthiness, Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), instructed that the aircraft 5N-BZY remain grounded until the conclusion of investigations.
He stated: “The Rano aircraft 5N-BZY experienced a failure on its engine 1. Smoke was noticed in the cabin and flight deck. Oxygen masks were donned. The appropriate safety protocols were initiated on the ground for landing. Smoke dissipated. Pilot safely landed the aircraft without incident.”
He further noted that the rescue aircraft that was to airlift passengers out of Sokoto had already boarded Abuja-Katsina passengers, and it would have created problems to deboard those passengers, thereby cancelling the flight out of Sokoto.
He clarified that flight 5N-BZY is still on the ground with engineers working on it.
Achimugu assured that the NCAA prioritises safety and the records are clear, as more advanced countries have worse air incidents than Nigeria, because in Nigeria, flights get cancelled if there is the slightest concern about safety.
