Passengers on a commercial airline that was supposed to land in Nigeria’s capital Abuja were left bewildered when they realised they landed in another city 472 kilometers from their intended destination.
The United Nigeria Airlines flight NUA 0504 departed the local wing of the Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos on Sunday afternoon heading for the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport in Abuja.
After about an hour journey, the cabin crew announced that the aircraft had arrived in Abuja, but passengers soon realised they were not in Abuja. The plane landed at the Asaba International Airport in southern Nigeria.
The incident has generated a lot of conversation on social media with some users expressing shock. Some of the passenger also share their stories.
‘’Apparently, our pilot was given wrong flight plan from Lagos,’’ @dawisu, one of the passengers wrote on X.
United Nigerian Airlines has issued a statement saying that the plane was diverted to Asaba due to ‘’poor destination weather.’’
United Nigerian Airlines also denied the pilot was unaware of the diversion plan saying ‘’the pilot of the aircraft was aware of the temporary diversion and was properly briefed.’’
It said that the confusion would have been avoided if the cabin crew had announced to passengers that their flight was being diverted.
It said the flight later landed safely in Abuja and assured that steps would be taken to ‘’prevent similar occurrences in the future.’’
