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Obasanjo narrates how he escaped death on Ethiopian Airline

The former President said he was reading papers while the scary situation occurred.

Former President, Olusegun Obasanjo has narrated how escaped death while on board an Ethiopian Airline flight at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos on Wednesday, May 29, 2019.

According to reports, the airplane, Boeing 777–300 with nearly 400 passengers on board narrowly avoided an accident while trying to land in Lagos.

In an Interview with Premium Times, Obasanjo said, “he remained calm and read papers while the scary situation occurred.”

“While it all happened, I was reading my papers. One man, who was next to me, said, ‘Oga you no worry?’ I said, ‘Íf I worry, what will I do? If you are on a plane and you have a situation like this, why should you worry?’ I left everything in the hands of God.”

The former president was returning from a stakeholders dialogue on continental trade and implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AFCFTA) in Addis Ababa, Premium Times reports.

The plane was reported to have had a false landing due to strong winds and a heavy downpour, which almost caused it to overshoot its runway before returning to the air.

Narrating how it all happened, Obasanjo said: “I was on Ethiopian Airline. Rain just came down heavily.”

“The pilot thought he could land. And he landed. He touched down. But I think he took a swift decision that he had to take off again.

“So he took off. If he did not, I think he probably would have overrun the runway. He then apologised and said he would try to land again. He tried again, and we landed safely. And we all clapped.”

“He touched the ground. Then he took off and apologised and landed again at about 12.30. We spent just about 10 minutes in the air before we landed again.”

Recall that in March, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, a Boeing 737, with 149 passengers and eight crew members on board crashed near Addis Ababa.

Two Nigerians including Canada based Nigerian Professor, Pius Adesanmi died in the crash.

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