Tragedy was averted this evening, November 22, 2021 when an Air Peace aircraft flight P47159 traveling from Owerri to Lagos suffered a bird strike incident on Monday few minutes after take-off from the airport.
But the high professionalism of the pilot who piloted the aircraft to Port Harcourt and landed safely saved the day.
A statement by Stanley Olisa, the Spokesman of the airline said that the incident affected the parameters of one of the engines and the Pilot-in-Command had to divert the aircraft to Port-Harcourt and safely landed the aircraft, while the passengers disembarked normally.
The statement hinted that the airline had dispatched a rescue team and another aircraft to airlift the passengers of the affected flight and assured that Air Peace was committed to the highest standards of safety and would not compromise on it.
Earlier in the month, an Air Peace flight from Benin to Abuja was aborted while taxiing to take-off due to a bird strike.
The flight scheduled for 2.35 pm had departed the Benin Airport terminal for the runway with its passengers.
However, just as it gathered speed and at the point of lift-off, it suffered a bird strike causing the pilot to immediately lower its nose to abort the flight.
The pilot announced that there had been a bird strike and the plane could no longer take off.
Uche Nwosu is a two time Shell Petroleum PLC award winner in the year 2000;
He won the Shell Award on Investigative Journalism and Environmental Cleanliness.
