Emirates airline has confirmed that its flight from Lagos to Dubai had to be aborted after the aircraft hit another plane parked on the runway in the Nigerian capital.
The incident occurred on Monday evening, when Emirates flight EK782 was taxing down the runway when the wing of the aircraft collided with a parked HAK Air plane at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport.
This was the second plane incident for Emirates Airline in the last 10 days. An Emirates A380 plane with more than 500 people on board made an emergency landing in Sri Lanka after pilots detected smoke in the cockpit.
An Emirates spokesperson confirmed the incident, stating: “Emirates can confirm that flight EK782 from Lagos to Dubai on 6th July made minor contact with the aircraft of another carrier while taxing. All passengers and crew safely disembarked the aircraft, and were transferred back to the terminal after the incident.
“Passengers were provided overnight hotel accommodation and were flown to Dubai on other Emirates services on 7th July.”
The Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) of Nigeria has commenced an investigation to find out the cause of the incident.
Reports claim approximately 300 passengers were on board the Emirates Boeing 777-200 flight, with the aircraft sustaining minor damage when its wing made impact with HAK Air aircraft, which sustained damage to its tail.
The incident occurred at around 9:30pm when the aircraft was taxing to the take-off point for departure from the country to Dubai.
In the earlier incident in Colombo: An Emirates A380 plane with more than 500 people on board made an emergency landing in Sri Lanka after pilots detected smoke in the cockpit 10 days ago, aviation officials said.
The aircraft, which landed safely in Colombo, was 320 nautical miles (around 600 kilometres) east of the city when pilots made a distress call.
“The pilots said May Day, May Day, and we activated all our emergency services and brought the aircraft to a safe landing,” the airport’s chief air navigation services officer Crishanthi Tissera told reporters.
She said the pilots reported smoke in the cockpit, leading airport managers to place firefighters and medical units on standby.
The plane landed 39 minutes after the first distress call and all 471 passengers and 30 crew disembarked safely.
A statement from the airline said the plane had suffered a “technical fault” and was diverted to Colombo, without giving details.
Emirates carried out its first A380 landing in Colombo in 2012, but the airport has yet to be upgraded to handle the biggest passenger airliner.
The airline said passengers were being transferred to other Emirates flights.
