Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno state escaped death by the whiskers on a British Airways flight 082 that was struck by thunder while approaching Heathrow International Airport in London on Thursday, May 22.
Some other top Nigerian political leaders like former governor of Kwara State, Senator Bukola Saraki, former Speaker of the Delta State House of Assembly, Hon. Victor Ochei were also aboard the plane.
According to report, the plane left Abuja around 8am on Thursday and was billed to land at Heathrow airport at about 2.30pm, but the weather in Heathrow was so bad and the plane had to hover for about 40 minutes in the air without being able to land, before heading towards Birmingham airport to have an emergency landing as they were running short on fuel.
Nigeria Radical SectThe plane had already been hit by a lightning which caused a loud bang in the plane and damaged some electricals, one of the passengers aboard the flight revealed.
A source revealed that Gov. Shettima and others were kept in the plane for about two hours during which the aircraft was refuelled and an attempt was made at fixing some engineering issues caused by the thunder.
The passengers were later put on three luxury buses at about 6pm which took them by road to London when it became apparent that the plane couldn’t continue on the journey. They arrived London at about 10pm, and had to bear the brunt of looking for a place to pass the night as some of them couldn’t anywhere at that time.
“The shock of the loud bang caused by the thunder and the several hours spent both in the air hovering and on the road left many of us weak and sick but our joy is that we survived what could have been a major disaster on the heels of the Boko Haram inflicted tragedies in Nigeria”, the source added.
The Sun