NIGERIA: Medview Airline Makes Emergency Landing After Depressurisation

Medview Airline has confirmed that its flight VL2105 en route Lagos from Abuja on Tuesday experienced cabin depressurization while descending from 32,000ft altitude.

The airline’s Chief Operating Officer, Mr Michael Ajigbotoso said this in a statement in Lagos on Thursday.

Ajigbotoso said the Captain noticed a warning sign of cabin depressurisation while descending from 32000ft altitude and immediately briefed passengers on board on the development.

He said the pilot then referred to the checklist and applied the necessary procedure to mitigate the situation.

The oxygen masks dropped and were in good working condition for the passengers’ usage.

The captain called for priority landing because he had been on number seven on queue.

Ajigbotoso said the pilot-in-command was obliged and he made a safe landing, adding that the passengers were calm since it did not pose a serious danger.

He said the incident was promptly reported to the necessary authorities and investigation was ongoing.

Ajigbotoso said the situation was professionally handled according to required operational standard procedures.

The Med-View Airline Boeing 737-500 aircraft, with registration number 5N-BQM, was coming from Abuja when the incident occurred around 3:10 p.m.

The aircraft had 27 passengers and six crew members onboard and there was no fatality.

The Accident Investigation Bureau has already begun an investigation to unravel the remote and immediate cause of the incident.

Med-View Airline is an airline based in Lagos, Nigeria. The airline was founded in 2007 as a charter airline, mainly operating Hajj flights, and has offered domestic passenger services since November 2012.

It has since expanded into regional and long-haul scheduled passenger routes. Med-View Airline Plc was listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange on January 31, 2017.

The airline recently laid off 90% of its employees between November 2017 and June 2018. Med-View Airline owes sacked and existing workers at least N1.5billion in salary arrears, pension and other entitlements.

The airline is currently banned from operating in the European Union.

Med-View Airline had previously operated to nine domestic and nine international scheduled destinations in states across Nigeria, West Africa, Europe and the Middle East.

Med-View Airline now operates to only the Nigerian capital Abuja.


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