Pandemonium it was penultimate Sunday, when a Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt enroute Malabo, hovered above Abuja airspace for hours not able to land due to inclement weather. Bemused passengers became alarmed, as anger due
to delay in landing, eventually turned to fear for their safety. While some cried openly, other prayed for an end to their predicament. Nevertheless, waiting in the air went from one to two, then three and four hours, yet no respite..
Meanwhile family members who had come to the Nnamdi Azikiwe airport to receive their loved ones were stunned when they learnt that the plane had to be rerouted to Malabo, after what seem like an endless wait. Should they return home and come back later? Or should they wait it out? They inquired, but the airline personnel could not provide answers.
In the words of one of the traumatized passengers, who spoke exclusively to huhuonline.com, “It was a nightmare”. “Our flight, aLufthansa aircraftLH562 from Frankfurt with departure time 11:50am to Abuja and speculated arrival time 16:45hrs, experienced severe turbulence while trying to land in Abuja on Sunday afternoon and had to spend more than an hour hovering above the clouds”.
“Despite the long stay in air and repeated dramatic turbulence, the pilot and cabin crew were able to calm the terrified passengers by updating passengers about the difficulties experienced with landing attempts.
“Passengers reported sporadic lightening in the clouds that had some impact on the landing attempts and all plans to land in Abuja was cancelled. The pilot later informed us about directive from Frankfurt to proceed to the next destination, Malabo”.
“Having spent some fuel above Abuja air, the plane could not fly with the remaining fuel to Malabo and had to do emergency refueling inLagos. No damage was recorded and all passengers were returned safely to Abuja by 23:40hrs”.
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