Passengers on board the flight denied tampering with the door before the plane came to a stop after landing.
Nigerian airline Dana Air has blamed a passenger after an emergency door fell off one of its aircraft while it was taxing on the ground after landing in Abuja.
In a strongly-worded statement, Dana Air refuted the claims of “some online publications” that the door had simply fallen off the aircraft during taxiing and said that it “categorically could never have happened without a conscious effort to open it”.
A passenger on board the flight told the BBC that everyone on board had denied tampering with the door, which some claimed had been unstable throughout the flight from Lagos.
One passenger, who took the photo below and posted it to Twitter, claimed that she could hear the door rattling throughout the flight and that she thought the sound of it falling off was an explosion.
Flew Dana. Exit door was unstable throughout the flight. As we touched down it fell off. Scary stuff. pic.twitter.com/eDtTlNi2TZ
— Dr Ola Brown (@NaijaFlyingDr) February 7, 2018
Pic via Twitter/Ola Brown(Orekunrin) via Storyful
Another passenger, Dapo Sanwo, told the BBC: “The cabin crew tried to say a passenger pulled the hatch which everyone denied. They also tried to get us to stop taking videos or pictures.”
Following widespread reporting of the incident, Dana Air released a statement which read: “We wish to state categorically that this could never have happened without a conscious effort by a passenger to open it.
“By design, the emergency exit door of our aircraft are plug-type backed by pressure, which ordinarily cannot fall off without tampering or conscious effort to open by a crew member or passenger.
“We also wish to enlighten the author that, when an aircraft is airborne, it is fully pressurized and there was no way the seat or door could have been ‘shaking’ as insinuated.
“A thorough inspection was however carried out on the said aircraft upon landing in Abuja, by our engineers and a team from the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), and no issue was reported. There was also no threat to safety at any point.
“The flight was only delayed for 8 minutes as we needed to demonstrate to the regulators that the safety and comfort of our guests is at the centre of our operations.
“We wish to apologize to our guests for any inconvenience such report may have caused and for the slight delay on the return service to Lagos.
“A thorough investigation of the concerned passenger is ongoing.
“As one of the oldest and most experienced airline in Nigeria, we remain committed to global best practices.”
