Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has narrated how he reacted to a narrow shave he had with death on an Ethiopian Airlines plane at the Murtala Muhammad International Airport, Lagos on Wednesday.
The plane, which had 394 persons on board, nearly crashed as it tried to land due to strong winds and a heavy downpour.
The ex-president was returning from a stakeholders dialogue on continental trade and implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement, AFCFTA, which ended on Tuesday in Addis Ababa, at the time of the incident.
Describing how he reacted during the near miss, Obasanjo told Premium Times, “While it all happened, I was reading my papers.
“One man, who was next to me, said, ‘Oga you no worry?’ I said, ‘If I worry, what will I do? If you are on a plane and you have a situation like this, why should you worry?’ I left everything in the hands of God.”
Explaining how it happened, Obasanjo said, “I was on Ethiopian Airlines. Rain just came down heavily.
“The pilot thought he could land. And he landed. He touched down. But I think he took a swift decision that he had to take off again.
“So he took off. If he did not, I think he probably would have overrun the runway. He then apologised and said he would try to land again. He tried again, and we landed safely. And we all clapped.”
Obasanjo explained that the pilot initially touched the ground at 12:20 pm but swiftly took off again and spent at least 10 minutes in the air before safely landing the plane.
“He touched the ground. Then he took off and apologised and landed again at about 12.30. We spent just about 10 minutes in the air before we landed again,” he said.
Two Nigerians – Amb. Abiodun Bashua and Prof. Pius Adesanmi – were victims when a Boeing 737-Max 8 plane belonging to Ethiopian Airlines crashed in March, killing all 157 passengers and crew aboard.
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