There was no plane crash at Ilorin, it was just a minimal Tyre burst – Air Peace

The management of Air Peace has refuted a viral report that there was a plane crash at Ilorin, the company stated that the aircraft en-route Ilorin from Abuja had a “minimal tyre burst” after landing at the Ilorin international airport, Kwara state.

The Air Peace noted that passengers on board were “disembarked seamlessly” after the incident occurred at the airport runway. It was gathered that the incident occurred Friday morning when the B737-500 aircraft with registration number 5N-BQR was taxing.

Several reports on social media and several media houses have it that an Air Peace plane crash-landed at the Ilorin airport as passengers escaped death.

But Air Peace, in a statement on Saturday, described the report as “sensational publication of falsehood”, noting that no such incident happened.

“For the record, no such thing happened. The reports misrepresented and exaggerated the facts. We can confirm that the aircraft in question landed safely but had a minimal tyre burst while taxing,” the statement reads.

“This debunks all the mischievously headlined reports circulating online, which should be disregarded.

“Our aircraft neither crashed nor crash-landed in Ilorin or in any place for that matter. This kind of sensationalism is bad and was intended to cause panic in the minds of the flying public”.

“It was duly reported to the authorities and passengers disembarked seamlessly. The tyres have, however, been fixed and the aircraft is intact. We condemn the sensational publication of falsehood.”

Henrietta Yakubu, general manager of corporate affairs of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), in a text message to The Press, said the airport runway is open.

“The airport is open now. Overland Airways landed by 0521hrs,” she said.