A private jet operated by Triton Aviation has made an emergency landing at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, after losing a door shortly after take-off.
The CL60 aircraft, registered as T7-SEI and operating under flight identification DWC052, was travelling to the Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos when the incident occurred on Thursday.
An incident report indicated that the aircraft departed Abuja at 4:17 pm UTC but encountered trouble while climbing through 3,000 feet, about three nautical miles from the airport.
The crew subsequently issued a Mayday distress call and informed air traffic controllers that a door had opened during the flight.
Following the alert, the control tower instructed the aircraft to return to Abuja for an emergency landing. Airport firefighters, rescue personnel and medical teams were immediately placed on standby to respond to a possible emergency.
The crew later asked air traffic controllers to establish whether the door was still open. However, the controller could not determine its condition because of the aircraft’s position.
The jet eventually landed safely on Runway 22 at approximately 4:34 pm UTC, about 14 minutes after the distress call. A subsequent observation by the duty controller confirmed that the door was missing from the aircraft’s fuselage.
The aircraft was later moved to the international apron extension with the assistance of a ground marshaller.
Meanwhile, a video obtained by The PUNCH showed the missing door, which was reportedly discovered by farmers in a farm near Abuja. One of the men in the video said they found the object while returning from their farmland but could not identify the aircraft it belonged to.
The number of passengers aboard the jet was not immediately established.
The Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection at the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, Michael Achimugu, confirmed the incident but referred further inquiries to the Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau, which is responsible for investigating aviation occurrences.
A source at the bureau said investigators had been deployed to examine the incident, adding that an official statement would be issued later.
Triton Aviation was yet to provide a comment on the incident as of the time of filing this report.
