IRS Airline Plane Crash-Lands In Kaduna

An IRS plane crash-landed in the early hours of Sunday at the Kaduna International Airport, Kaduna, witnesses say. There were no casualties. Reports say the plane had 92 passengers on board. Aviation authorities did not immediately respond to inquiries about the incident.

The plane took off from the Murtala Muhammad International Airport in Lagos by 8 am, en route Kaduna and crashed around 9:30am. Airport sources say, the plane conveying 105 passenger from Lagos had a landing gear problem. ”The plane had a tyre that burst during landing but it managed to halt midway, along the runway,” the source said. ”However, all the passengers were evacuated safely and the plane is still on the runway.” But a spokesperson for the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority denied the plane’s tires were faulty.

The incident happened just more than a week after a small passenger plane crashed in Lagos killing 15 people.The plane was carrying the body of a former governor of Ondo state, Olusegun Agagu, for interment in Ondo state. The accident was followed in days by two near accidents, one conveying pilgrims to Saudi Arabia. The incidents have rekindled public concerns about aviation safety in Nigeria, with many expressing fears about a repeat of the multiple air plane crashes that the nation witnessed in 2005 and 2006..