Flight to DC returns to Nigeria with injured passengers after ‘unexpected aircraft movement’
A flight to Washington, D.C., returned to Nigeria after “unexpected aircraft movement” caused injuries, United Airlines said.
A statement from United emailed to The Hill on Monday said that one of its flights headed for Washington, D.C., out of Lagos, Nigeria, “returned to Lagos after a technical issue and an unexpected aircraft movement.” The Thursday flight carried more than 240 passengers.
“It landed safely in Lagos and four passengers and two flight attendants were seen at a hospital for minor injuries and have been released,” the statement from United on the flight said. “We are working with aviation authorities in the U.S. and Nigeria to understand the cause.”
Late last Thursday morning, a United plane left Lagos’s Murtala Muhammed International Airport, but came back early Friday morning “hours later,” the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) said Friday in a post on the social platform X.
“While all passengers and crew disembarked safely, four passengers and two crew members sustained serious injuries, and an additional 27 passengers and five crew members had minor injuries,” Obiageli Orah, FAAN’s director of public affairs and consumer protection, continued in the post.
Earlier this month, another United jet was clipped by another jet while they were taxiing at Chicago O’Hare International Airport, according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
According to an emailed statement from an FAA spokesperson to The Hill, an American Airlines Boeing 737-800 jet “struck the tail of” a United Airlines 787 jet while taxiing on separate taxiways at Chicago O’Hare International Airport.
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