By Our Reporter
The plane tyres of an Air Peace aircraft convening sixty-six passengers burst while landing at the Ilorin Airport in Kwara State.
The incident happened on Friday while the B737-500 aircraft with registration number 5N-BQR was taxiing to the parking bay at the airport.
The passengers are said to have disembarked safely.
Although one person was reportedly injured during the incident, there was however no loss of life.
According to a statement issued by the airline management, the incident has been reported to the authorities.
Meanwhile, the Accident Investigation Bureau said its safety investigators did an evaluation of the occurrence and decided not to investigate and has released the aircraft to the Operator (Air Peace).
Following the incident the runway of the Ilorin International Airport has been closed to traffic.
Many passengers, including some highly-placed Nigerians, narrowly escaped death.
All flights to Ilorin have also been cancelled until evacuation of the plane.
The airline began operation from Ilorin Airport on June 16.
According to investigation, the aircraft crash landed at about 9.30am on Friday morning in Ilorin from Abuja.
The plane landed with a bang, which affected the cabin with luggage falling on passengers.
It was gathered with the impact of the crash the plane could not taxi to the tarmac.
In the last 24 hours, the runway of the airport had been closed to traffic.
But all the traumatised passengers were successfully evacuated from the runway.
As at the time of filing this report at 2.08pm, efforts were being made to relocate the plane from the runway.
It was learnt that the process of moving the plane from the runway was slow because, according to a source, “it is a bigger aircraft and we have no equipment.
“We are in the process of removing the aircraft. We have been on it for 24 hours,” the source added.
But the Federal Aviation Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and other agencies offered to keep the incident under wraps.
“We were directed to manage the situation,” the source said.