An aircraft operated by Nigeria’s largest airline, Arik Air, made an emergency landing on Tuesday when the pilot detected smoke in the cabin.

The aircraft, travelling from Lagos to Accra, Ghana, had smoke coming from its cabin many miles away from its destination in Ghana.

A passenger had taken to the social media Thursday complaining about alleged ill treatment meted out to the affected passengers on the flight when the plane eventually landed in Ghana after the experience.

But the airline said in a statement on Thurday that there was no incident and that passengers disembarked without hitches.

The airline’s spokesperson, Adebanji Ola, said the captain briefed the passengers when the incident occurred.

“Arik Air flight W3 304 from Lagos to Accra on March 6, 2018 declared an emergency in line with standard operating procedures, when unknown source of smoke was detected in the cabin 81 miles from Accra,” the statement said.

“The captain of the flight briefed the passengers accordingly, assuring them that the aircraft was under control and safe for landing in Accra.

“The aircraft, a Dash 8 Q400, landed safely in Accra without further incident and all passengers disembarked normally.”

The incident occurred against the backdrop of series of near-mishaps recorded in the Nigerian aviation industry in recent weeks.

In February, two separate incidents involving Dana aircraft in Abuja and Port Harcourt dominated the media space, with many calling on the government to pay serious attention to the aviation sector.

Earlier, the runway of Akure airport was invaded by cows, delaying the landing of an aircraft for several minutes.

The Nigerian government had Wednesday reacted to the Dana incidents when it ordered a complete audit of the airline’s operations.

On Thursday, Arik airline said the malfunctioning aircraft is currently parked in Accra and its team of engineers were conducting comprehensive inspections on it.

The team would ascertain the cause of the smoke, it said, after which the aircraft would be flown without passengers to a maintenance facility for recertification and testing.

“The relevant aviation authorities in Ghana and Nigeria have been briefed appropriately on the incident,” the statement said.

The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) says it is making plans to erect perimeter fencing at airports across the country to improve safety and security of aircraft and passengers.

The General Manager, Corporate Affairs, FAAN, Henrietta Yakubu, disclosed this to journalists in Lagos on Tuesday.

Mr. Yakubu said the managing director of FAAN, Saleh Dunoma, had assured that funds to embark on the construction of the perimeter fences would be captured in the 2019 budget.

She said:”The incidence of runway incursion is a threat to safety, which remains a great concern to FAAN.

“The incident at Akure airport where cows entered the runway is being addressed. The animals gained access to the restricted area through a gap on the perimeter fence.’’

According to her, engineers from FAAN are already at the Akure airport to fix the collapsed section of the fence.

She also disclosed that as part of measures to further strengthen the security of the airports across the country, FAAN had stopped the renewal of On Duty Cards (ODCs) for former workers of airlines and FAAN.

According to her, this is to ensure strict personnel monitoring and make sure that only people designated to be in restricted areas are able to gain access to such areas.

Mr. Yakubu explained that all security measures had been reviewed, while 10 vehicles were recently added to the ones on the ground to enhance runway patrol.

A Dana aircraft with registration number 5N-SRI performing a flight from Lagos to Port Harcourt has overshot the runway and ended up in the bush in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria.

Passengers on board the Dana aircraft are currently being evacuated from a nearby bush in Omagwa neighborhood where the Port Harcourt International airport is located in Rivers state.

Emergency officials state that no one was injured as at the time of filing this report.

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Passengers on a Frankfurt-bound flight on Sunday were thrown into despair when the airplane suddenly came down midair from 35,000 feet to 5,000 feet.

It was gathered that the LH595 flight, operated by Lufthansa airline, left Nigeria’s capital Abuja for Frankfurt, Germany, at about 11.15 pm.

According to a report by Premium Times, trouble started shortly after takeoff when the plane suddenly descended as though it was about to crash, throwing the entire passengers into despair.

A passenger who craved anonymity said the aircraft crew, however, declined to make a stop at a nearby airport in spite of pleas from passengers.

The passenger explained that when the incident occurred about a few minutes past one hour into the flight, many passengers fell down, others were injured and many had some of their valuables fall from where they had them placed.

The passenger recounted that due to the fear, they could not be served food and drinks neither could the crew members attend to other welfare concerns.

The airline, he said, claimed the incident was due to a combination of bad weather and faulty engine, adding that it was not caused by human error.

Upon arrival in Germany, there were ambulances and fire fighters waiting to attend to the aircraft and its passengers who, according to our source, had become “almost dead”.

Efforts to speak to the management of the airline proved abortive Tuesday morning.

Several calls placed to the communication desk were left unattended to while no reply was supposed to an email sent to the airline.

A pilot was forced to make an emergency landing after a row caused by a passenger who refused to stop farting.

The passenger apparently kept breaking wind on board a Transavia Airlines flight from Dubai to Amsterdam Schiphol last weekend.

The two Dutchmen sitting next to him didn’t take very well to his flatulence, but the unashamed man was apparently not put off and refused to hold back.

Members of the crew on the Dutch low-cost airline were apparently less than sympathetic and refused to do anything about it.

Despite a warning from the pilot, a fight between the men then broke out, causing the flight to be diverted to Vienna Airport .

Police boarded the plane with dogs and removed two sisters and the two men after the pilot made a report about ‘passengers on the rampage’.

The women are now taking the Dutch budget airline to court after being removed from the flight, and claim they have done nothing wrong.

Nora Lacchab, 25, a law student from Rotterdam, and her unnamed sister, say being removed was ‘humiliating’ are now seeking to legal action.

The two women, who are of Dutch and Moroccan descent, were returning to Amsterdam after a week holidaying in Dubai.

Nora told De Telegraaf: ‘We had nothing to do with the whole disturbance. We distance ourselves from that.

‘Do they sometimes think that all Moroccans cause problems? That’s why we do not let it sit

‘We had no idea who these boys were, we just had the bad luck to be in the same row and we didn’t do anything. All I will say is that the crew were really provocative and stirred things up.’

All four passengers have since been released, and were not arrested as they had not broken an Austrian laws.

However, they have all been banned from Transavia Airlines, who say that the two girls were also involved in the fight.

In a statement they said: ‘Our crew must ensure a safe flight. When passengers pose risks, they immediately intervene. Our people are trained for that.

‘They know very well where the boundaries are. Transavia is therefore square behind the cabin crew and the pilots.’

Delta Air Lines flight 55 from Lagos to Atlanta, United States returned to the Murtala Muhammed  International Airport onTuesday night after an issue with one of the A330-200’s two engines.

The flight which was said to have initially pushed back at 22:40hrs had air return and emergency landing at 23:16hrs, when the pilot announced the evacuation of all the passengers on board within 90 seconds, after contacting the control tower as the left engine of the aircraft was said to have caught fire mid air in-flight.

According to the airline, the flight landed safely and customers exited the aircraft on the runway via emergency slides, adding that airport fire authorities met the aircraft upon arrival.

The airline said in a statement, “Delta is aware of five customers reporting non-critical injuries as a result of the evacuation.

“Delta teams have provided overnight hotel accommodations to customers and will rebook customers on an alternate Delta aircraft on Wednesday. The safety of Delta’s customers and crew members is always our top priority.”

Some passengers of Nigerian air carrier, Dana Airline, expressed fear when the door of an aircraft belonging to the airline fell off upon landing.

One of the passengers on the flight, Dapo Sanwo, said the door panel was loose all through the flight,a situation he described as an indication of “lack of maintenance.”

Another passenger, Ola Brown, who took to his twitter page to vent his frustration, said the experience was scary.

Mr. Brown narrated that the exit door of the aircraft was unstable all through the flight, adding that it fell off as soon as the aircraft landed.

“Flew Dana. Exit door was unstable throughout flight. As we touched down, it fell off. Scary stuff,” he wrote on twitter.

“I was closer to the front so when I heard the sound, (I) thought it was an explosion. (I) couldn’t quite comprehend that it (the door) had just fallen off.”

Details of the incident and its causes were not immediately clear.

When contacted on Wednesday morning , the corporate communication desk of Dana Air said it would need to be briefed by its engineers before reacting to the development.

“We need to also get the engineers to give their report,” a staff of the airline’s corporate communications department said..

Up to 800 passengers have been stranded at Gatwick Airport for five days after an airline cancelled its flights.

Many of the travellers, who were due to travel to Lagos with Nigerian airline Med-View, have been sleeping on the floor since Friday, and may not get a flight until the new year.

Med-View blamed technical problems which are said to have put one of its three planes out of action.

The airline also claimed it arranged for three planes to evacuate at least 700 people on Wednesday but one of these had to be cancelled after passengers became unruly.

But furious customers, some of whom paid more than £1,000 for a ticket, accused the company of ‘abandoning’ them.

Ola Dami, 26, from Coventry, said he missed Christmas with his family in Lagos because of the chaos.

She told The Sun: ‘I feel abandoned and disrespected. I’ve been told there will be no flights until next year.’

Police were called to the South Terminal to maintain control amid angry scenes.

One Twitter user, ‘Georgina’, filmed a confrontation between a customer and a member of staff.

‘If you listen well, you will hear a customer say “don’t tell me not to shout or I will shout,’ she wrote.

Another witness saw a woman appealing to a member of staff to help her mother get home for Christmas after she was discharged from hospital in the UK.

One passenger feared she was going to miss her sister’s wedding because of flight cancellations.

She wrote on Twitter: ‘Why can’t you f***ing provide an alternative for people, it’s been 4 days now and we all just here with no refunds no words from you, no assurance nothing!!!!

‘I’m supposed to be my sister’s maid of honour and these people are ruining everything.’

Gatwick Airport said: ‘Due to a lack of available aircraft, a significant number of Med-view passengers have not flown out as expected and are currently still at the airport. Gatwick would like to apologise on the airline’s behalf.

‘Airport staff are also assisting these passengers where possible and will continue to work with the airline and other authorities to ensure that Medview honours its commitments to their passengers.

Passengers have also been left stranded at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja.

In a statement, posted on December 24, the airline said: ‘We sincerely apologize for all the recent flight disruptions.

‘We are currently doing everything possible to get back on schedule.’

Hundreds of Arik Air passengers were stranded on Friday morning at various airports across the country following an unannounced strike by the cabin crew.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the worst hit is Abuja and Lagos passengers where Arik has its major customers.

NAN learnt that the cabin crew commenced the strike Friday morning without prior notice over what they termed “non increment of their salaries and allowances.”

Several passengers were seen milling around terminal B of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja where Arik Air operates from.

NAN also observed that some other airlines took advantage of the situation to sell tickets to the stranded passengers at exorbitant rates ranging from N40,000 to N50,000 for the Abuja to Lagos route.

NAN reports that members of staff of Arik Air were seen explaining to passengers and appealing to them to remain calm as the airline management negotiated with the striking workers.

A source at the airline told NAN the airline announced a two-hour delay on all its flights.

He said the airline believed that negotiation with the aggrieved crew members could be concluded in two hours, adding that if the negotiation lingered, more delays would happen.

He explained that the crew members were demanding for allowances that hitherto applied when Arik Air operated long haul routes like New York, London and Johannesburg.

According to him, when those flights where happening, a crew member could accumulate between 100 and 120 flying hours which came with special bonuses and they also enjoyed special allowances.

“For instance, the New York flight attracted 100 dollars allowance per night while the London flight attracted 60 pounds per night, multiply by the number of nights spent abroad.

“The crew members are still demanding for same working conditions as before which may not be possible as they also do not work as before.

“The current Arik Air management introduced an attractive working condition for staff you can’t find in the industry.

“For instance, the staff received their December salary on the 20th, a feat that has never happened before,” the source said.

The official also said that Arik had one of the best health insurance in the industry, saying that its health insurance scheme allowed each staff to register as high as 10 dependants. (NAN)