A Turkish Airlines’ plane was partly damaged and narrowly escaped being razed when a fuel tanker that was supplying it with fuel caught fire at the Aminu Kano International Airport in northern Nigeria Tuesday night, the local Premium Times newspaper reported Wednesday.
The paper quoted one of the passengers on the Airbus 340 plane, due to make a flight from the Nigerian city to Istanbul, as saying only a quick decision by officials to hurriedly tow the plane away from the burning truck saved it from being incinerated.
The passenger, Garba Shehu, who was travelling with his family, said the fuel tanker was totally burnt, the plane was partially damaged and the flight was cancelled.
“The Airbus 340 aircraft which had the burning truck under its wings made a miraculous escape following a decision to tow it away from the fire just in time before the fuel-laden tanker burst into a towering flame.
“The flight taking my family and I, among many other passengers to Istanbul from Kano was cancelled…. there are indications that the aircraft, even though not destroyed, was partly damaged on its wing,” the paper quoted Shehu, a top Nigerian journalist, as saying.
PANA reports that Nigerian aviation authorities and the airlines’ officials have yet to comment on the incident.
