Posted by The Sun News on
A major air disaster involving a Nigerian airline, Bellview Airlines, was averted in Banjul, The Gambian capital Wednesday, when the engine of the airline's plane exploded at the point of take off.
A major air disaster involving a Nigerian airline, Bellview Airlines, was averted in Banjul, The Gambian capital Wednesday, when the engine of the airline's plane exploded at the point of take off.
Daily Sun gathered that Bellview Airline's plane (flight B3 251) from Banjul to Freetown and Lagos was about to take off at the Banjul International Airport when a heavy explosion was heard from one of the engines, which shook the entire airport.
It was gathered that the explosion in the engine caused the aircraft's tyres to burst. According to one of the passengers, they were lucky that the incident took place just on take-off as it would have resulted in a major air disaster.
At the time of filing this report, the cause of the explosion was unknown. But the flight was cancelled after Bellview Airlines discovered that the extent of damage on the aircraft was much and passengers were informed to report back yesterday at 1445pm for possible rescue from Lagos.
Meanwhile, Bellview Airlines' stranded passengers at Banjul airport have demanded for another aircraft to transport them to their destinations as they will not risk the use of the grounded aircraft which most of the them believe is not safe for flying. Some of the passengers said that the aircraft had problems even before take-off, alluding to the fact that engineers worked on the engine before the aborted take-off.
While some passengers were anxious to know when they would travel, some complained about the attitude of Bellview ground staff who did not care about their welfare as they were not provided with even drinking water for the over eight hours they were at the airport after the incident.