Deputy Senate President, Others Escape Death At Abuja Airport

San Francisco, April 17, (THEWILL) – Nigeria’s Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu and five others including crew escaped death Saturday evening when the landing gear of the chartered business jet they were travelling in refused to engage to enable them land at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.

The jet, a Challenger 602, registered to Prime Air with number D-CGED was returning from Makurdi where the Senate Press Corp had a two-day retreat.

Sources at the airport told THEWILL that the pilot tried multiple times to engage the landing gear without success forcing the aircraft to hover around Abuja airspace for more than ninety minutes until the pilot opted for emergency landing. He was given clearance to crash-land the jet on its belly by the airport authority.

The clearance forced the temporal closure of the airport.

Fortunately, after the clearance was given, the landing gear responded bringing relief to the passengers, crew and the Air Traffic Controllers.

The jet eventually landed at about 7.23 p.m. and THEWILL gathered that engineers moved in immediately to identify what may have affected the landing gear.