FAAN Abandons Emergency Landing Site Very Close To Dana Crash Site

Perhaps if the management of Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, had lived up to standard and faced their responsibilities, those who lost their lives in the ill-fated Dana crash that consumed well over 160 souls would have been alive today and their familiessaved from mourning.

Reason is that the management of FAAN had abandoned the emergency landing sitewhich is located very close to the site where the rickety Dana plane crashed. Were the maintenance procedure of the landing site not abandoned, maybe the pilot would have been able to land safely there without thinking of going to Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos, before it lost control and crashed, killing all those on board and some unlucky ones on ground.

Global News gathered exclusively that the emergency landing site that is somewhere around Oke-Aro about ten minutes’ drive from the site of the crash.

We learnt that FAAN officials used to visit the site that has the signboard of Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) a few years ago on a daily basis, as some Air Force personnel would also be seen on fulltime duty. There used to be flurry of activities there too, with some construction equipment scattered all over the place. Presently there is a big standby generator working 24 hours and diesel is supplied regularly and one can still see few staff on the emergency landing site.

The Air Force officers who used to come to the place suddenly reduced their frequency and are now coming only on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Also learnt that before now the control tower indicator light used to blink consistently before it stopped working and with it, a source said, “the pilot would have noticed the existence of an emergency landing strip and would have landed or crash-landed there instead of the residential area.”

Now the place is used as a farmland using it to cultivate farm products while other residents have turned it to their dumpsite; and after the DANA crash, FAAN officials started coming to clear the bushy site.

When contacted,one of the top officials of FAAN initially claimed it was all untrue but promised to get back and when he eventually did confirmed that there was an emergency landing site around Iju but she is hearing it for the first time since she joined FAAN 15 years ago and finally stated that the place is abandoned and not functioning.

Spendthrift.