Private jet mistakenly landed on a road near Nigeria airport, report finds

A private jet that mistakenly touched down on a road under construction in southern Nigeria had abandoned an initial landing attempt before making its final approach, investigators have revealed.

The Bombardier Challenger 601 aircraft, carrying three passengers and four crew members, missed the runway at Asaba Airport in Delta State on June 10, landing instead on a newly paved road nearby.

In a preliminary report released on Friday, the Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB) stated that the crew believed they were properly aligned with the airport’s automated navigation system.

According to the report, the flight crew claimed their instruments showed the aircraft was securely established on the correct flight path.

No one was injured in the incident. After the plane came to a halt, the passengers disembarked safely, and the aircraft was inspected. Remarkably, despite suffering damage to its left nose-wheel assembly, the jet was able to take off from the construction site shortly afterwards and return to Lagos.

Investigators say their initial findings are based on interviews, air traffic control logs, and data successfully downloaded from the plane’s cockpit voice and flight data recorders at a laboratory in Abuja.

The case has already sparked serious national security concerns. The Aviation Minister, Festus Keyamo, previously revealed that air traffic controllers completely lost sight of the aircraft after clearing it to land.

“The tower called and said, ‘Where is your location? I can’t see you on the tarmac,'” Mr Keyamo said during a recent television interview. “The pilots said they had landed. The tower asked, ‘Landed where?'”

“They saw a beautiful road there that looked like a runway and landed there,” the minister added, confirming that the country’s secret police, the Department of State Services (DSS), are now involved in the investigation due to the security implications of the plane taking off again without proper clearance.

The NSIB emphasized that its ongoing investigation is strictly aimed at gathering facts to prevent future occurrences, rather than assigning blame or legal liability.