NLC President, Ayuba Wabba
Nigeria bound Airfrance flight conveying Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) President, Ayuba Wabba, Senator Samuel Anyanwu, 10 Nigerian journalists and many other personalities narrowly escaped crashing into the Atlantic Ocean off Paris, the French capital.
The plane which had already taken off more than an hour from Paris was forced to make a detour, returned to Paris and for more than two hours deserted its passengers before finding an alternative craft to ferry them home.
The Political Editor of Radio Nigeria Network Service, Comrade Victorson Agbenson was one of the passengers on the aircraft. He, like others told www.gongnews.net that trouble started when the plane started experiencing malfunctioning shortly after take off, and had to return to the Charles de Gaulle international airport 1 hour 15 minutes after.
He said the lady pilot who battled seriously to safely return the plane to its take off point, earlier attributed the problem to technical problems.
According to him, the pilot explained that the air conditioning system could not regulate the temperature of the aircraft and sustain the plane through the freezing clouds, therefore she had to return the flight to safety and the nearest airport.
Also speaking the leader of the journalists on the plane and chairman Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Abuja Council, Mr Paul Ella Abechi attributed the escape to the divine hand of God.
The airline company, Air France, later gave a paltry sum of 15 Euro voucher to the passengers for lunch, to those who were on the aircraft with a plan to put them on another plane.
Also, in the aircraft are chairman Labour Correspondents Association of Nigeria (LACAN), Comrade Oche Michael and his predecessor, Comrade Adesoji Eze Fagbemi who is also the Labour Editor of the Nigerian Tribune, and Comrade Emeka Nze, the political correspondent of Blueprint newspaper among others.
They were a part of the delegation of journalists who had visited the United States of America on a professional guided tour.
The situation also led to another delay at the Charles de Gaulle International airport, where passengers had to stand for over two hours while trying to sort out the issues with the airline representatives.
NLC president, comrade Ayuba Wabba who was on-board was not pleased with the situation, described the incident as unfortunate and regrettable.
It would be recalled that the same Air France on the 2nd June, 2018 delayed it’s flight from Abuja to Paris for five hours over what was similarly classified as ‘technical issues.’(Gongnews)
