A chartered
aircraft carrying a delegation of
the opposition All Progressives
Congress (APC) was denied
landing at the Gombe Airport on
January 2, 2014, Thursday.
The flight which originated for
Abuja was delivering the APC
officials to Gombe for the
inauguration of the state's
interim Executive Committee of
the party.
Mr. Murtala Aliyu, the head of the
delegation and the former
Minister of State for Power and
Steel, confirmed the incident to
Premium Times in a telephone
conversation, noted that relevant
government agencies may be
behind it.
"We had almost descended
to Gombe Airport when the
pilot informed us that there
was a truck on the runway
and he cannot land, he also
told us that he does not
have enough fuel to go back
to Abuja," Mr. Aliyu said.
The pilot had no option but to
take the risk of taking an
emergency landing at Bauchi
Airstrip.
The spokesperson of Aviation
agencies, Yakubu Datti, said the
Airport of Gombe was closed for
a routine operation to check fire
tenders.
He added that the authorities
"decided to shut down the Airport
and run the trucks because there
were no scheduled flights and the
shutdown was just for a few
hours."
However, Mr. Aliyu faulted the
claim of the aviation
spokesperson, saying the
authorities should have let the
pilot know before he took off
from Abuja .
"The pilot was in constant
communication with the
Control towers and there
was no indication
whatsoever that Gombe
Airport was closed to traffic
until we got there," he said.
In his return, Mr. Datti said such
problems arise because some of
the planes being used for chatter
service are only registered
overseas and conduct 'Kabukabu'
business in Nigeria.
"You never hear a scheduled
flight have this sort of
problems," the spokesperson
noted.
He further added that aviation
authorities take issues of safety
very seriously and the fire tender
operations are ICAO
requirements.
Mr. Aliyu informed the incident
caused huge inconveniences for
the delegation: they had to use
vehicles from Bauchi back to
Gombe to appear on the
inauguration event. Moreover,
APC officials had to stay the night
in Bauchi, because the airstrip
there had no facility for night
flights.
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