Plane Overshoots Abuja Airport Runway …Passengers Stranded For Six Hours

The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has announced the reopening of Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, following an incident involving a Gulfstream four aircraft being operated by Skybird last Wednesday night.
A statement by the General Manager, Corporate Affairs, FAAN, Mrs Henrietta Yakubu yesterday disclosed that the aircraft overshot the runway while landing and consequently got stuck on the Runway End Safety Area (RESA).
Yakubu said that FAAN had reopened the runway to take arrivals and departures, subject to a reduced threshold of 3000 metres.
She assured airlines and passengers that the airport was safe for normal operations, adding that FAAN was committed to her core values of safety, security and comfort.
“This is following the partial closure of Runway 22, Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, at about 2200hours, last Wednesday night.
The closure was due to an incident involving a Gulfstream four aircraft being operated by Skybird that overshot the runway while landing and consequently got stuck on the Runway End Safety Area (RESA),” she said.
It was gathered that the aircraft, a Gulfstream 4 belonging to Skybird, overshot the runway on Wednesday night and got stuck on the runway.
Impeccable sources at the NAIA said that the aircraft landed through Runway 22 and was stuck on the Runway Safety Area.
“The RESA is about 30 meters from Runway 22 end, and the incident happened at about 10.20pm local time yesterday (Wednesday),” one of the sources, who pleaded not to be named due to the sensitive nature of the matter, said.
“The runway surface was wet at the time of the incident,” another source stated.
The incident disrupted flight operations at the NAIA, a development that made a lot of passengers to be stranded at the Abuja airport, yesterday.