Tragedy was averted in the early hours of Wednesday when a Delta Airline plane, which took off from the international wing of the Murtala Muhammed Airport developed engine problem about one hour after departure.
The aircraft, an Airbus 330-200 with over 200 passengers onboard, was heading to Atlanta, the United States, when the fault occurred.
To avoid disaster, the pilot reportedly made a return, requesting for clearance to make an emergency landing.
Following the request, the Aerodrome Fire and Rescue Safety Unit of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) were quickly mobilised to prepare for emergency landing. With sufficient mobilisation from the relevant safety emergency agencies, a section of the runway was closed for the aircraft to land.
Predictably, flight operations were temporarily disrupted as a section of the runway was closed to traffic, to enable the fire in the aircraft engine put out.
During the emergency evacuation, five passengers were said to have been injured.
The aircraft has since been towed from the runway to pave way for other aircraft that are either landing on taking off.
Officials of Delta Airlines also confirmed the incident, saying an Atlanta-bound flight from Lagos, Nigeria was forced to turn back Tuesday night after the plane experienced engine issues.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has promised to investigate the incident.
The General Manager, Public Relations, NCAA, Mr. Sam Adurogboye, disclosed this in Lagos.
Adurogboye said that NCAA had been notified of the incident, stressing that it is the duty of the regulatory authority to investigate such occurrences in order to ascertain what led to it.
He noted that the pilot acted in accordance with the Standard and Recommended Practices (SARPs) by making an air return immediately the left engine of the aircraft caught fire in-flight.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the Delta Airlines flight 55 which took off around 10:50 pm on Tuesday, made an air return less than an hour later, due to an engine fault.
The pilot announced the evacuation of all the passengers on board within 90 seconds, after contacting the control towers when the left engine of the aircraft caught fire.
A statement signed by the United States carrier’s media consultant in Nigeria, Mr. Tope Awe, on Wednesday, said the A330-200 had an issue with one of its two engines.
“The flight landed safely and customers exited the aircraft on the runway via emergency slides.