Segun Akanni, Toronto, Canada 
AirPeace’s Boeing 737-500 aircraft today, Saturday skidded off the runway over poor weather condition at the Port Harcourt airport.
Toyin Olajide, the chief operating officer of the airline, who confirmed the incident said the flight, P47291, which was reported to have taken off from Abuja and landed Port Harcourt at 3.42pm, attributed the incident to flooding of the runway.
”Our professional crew quickly recovered within seconds of the incident and the aircraft was successfully normalised. Our esteemed passengers on board the flight were calm during the incident and disembarked normally.
“Our teams of experts and the authorities are currently reviewing the incident and we will give our cooperation for a thorough exercise. We apologise to our esteemed passengers for the inconvenience caused them and wish to assure them that we will continue to prioritise their safety in all our operations, ”Olajide added.
Henrietta Yakubu, general manager, Corporate Affairs, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) also confirmed the development.
Yakubu said the aircraft skidded off the runway but the pilot was able to gain control of the situation by putting the aircraft to a stop as the undercarriage did not sink into the soil.
She also disclosed that no one was injured and there was no major damage of the aircraft.
The findings show that the affected aircraft has been grounded for inspection by concerned aviation authorities.
Due to the incident, Max Air was forced to cancel one of its flights, while Air Peace rescheduled two of its flights going to Lagos and Abuja till later in the evening on Saturday.
A message passengers received the airline noted “Dear Esteemed Passenger, We apologize for the disruption to your travel today which was due to Operational Reason. Air Peace Ltd remains absolutely focused on passenger safety, as well as on-time departures. Please note that flight 7293, Portharcourt to Lagos will now depart at 8:30PM. We apologise for any inconvenience caused. For enquiries, please call 0700-35924-773223 or email: callcenter flyairpeace.com”
