By Yusuf Olawale
Not fewer than 65 passengers of the Air Peace aircraft have narrowly escaped death upon crashing of the aircraft at about 9:30 am on Friday in Ilorin from Abuja.
According to confirmed reports from an eyewitness, the cause of the crash was a burst tyre and a bang which affected the cabin with luggage falling on passengers.
It was also gathered that with the impact of the crash, the plane could not taxi to the tarmac, leaving the passengers in a dead end situation.
It was however reported that all the traumatized passengers were successfully evacuated from the runway in the last 24 hours, while the runway of the airport had been closed to traffic, and all flights suspended.
As at the time of filing this report, efforts were being made to relocate the plane from the runway.
A top source from the scene of the event noted that the process of moving the plane from the runway was slow because of the unavailability of large equipment to move the aircraft.
The Federal Aviation Authority of Nigeria(FAAN) and other agencies have offered to keep the incident under wraps.
“We were directed to manage the situation,” the source said.