A Max Air aircraft which had the Emir of Kano, Aminu Ado-Bayero and other passengers onboard, reportedly made an emergency landing on Tuesday May 18. 

Daily Trust reported that the airplane with the number VM1645, which was slated for take-off at 1:30 p.m. made an emergency landing 10 minutes after taking off from the Aminu Kano International Airport (MAKIA). 

Prior to this, it had a 30 minutes delay and was only about 10 minutes in the air when it reportedly began to swerve until it made a detour.

The publication said the Director of Maintenance of the airliner, Muhammad Mubaraq debunked media reports that the plane developed an engine fault and that that the passengers had a near death experience. He however blamed the incident on “bird strike”. 

Mubaraq said; 

 “What actually happened was that during take off, we had a bird strike and the number two engine ingested some birds and damaged the blade.

“Our pilot followed the normal procedure and made an air return on landing. When he landed, the engineers inspected it and replaced the damaged blade. They carried out normal maintenance procedures and released the aircraft.

“As I am talking to you, I flew the same aircraft to Abuja. It is very wrong to say they had a near death experience, the newspaper quoted the official as saying.”

The airline rep who added that bird strike is a common occurrence and that the pilot did the right thing by making an air return, said the passengers were disembarked safely without any risk.