Authorities in Nigeria said on Tuesday that the plane had made an unplanned stop at the Bobo-Dioulasso airport in accordance with standard safety procedures and international aviation protocols due to a technical concern on its way to Portugal for a ferry mission. Ehimen Ejodame, a spokesperson for the Nigerian air force, neither confirmed nor denied comments about authorisation, or the lack of it, to make the landing but said an investigation into the incident was continuing.
I was on my way to Hong Kong for business, just as I had done three times in the past six months. But smoke coming from the plane had me thinking this would be my last flight. The flight was already very delayed. I was one of the last to board. It was then delayed for another hour. The crew said the plane was overweight, and they were taking luggage off it.
Pilot Anastasia Vournas noticed the plane's engine sputtering and losing power before it gave out, she told independent video news agency Key News Network. At that point, Vournas knew the flight wouldn't make it to its intended destination of Whiteman Airport in Pacoima, so she searched for a spot to make an emergency landing and brought the plane down in a watermelon field.
A small plane made an emergency landing in a field near Coast Road on Saturday just north of the Santa Cruz city limits. According to Cecile Juliette, a public information officer with the Cal Fire San Mateo-Santa Cruz Unit, the plane consisted of a pilot and a student and lost power over Scotts Valley, prompting an emergency landing.
A passenger was "in a fight with our flight attendant right now, trying to open the emergency exit," the pilot radioed the tower at Eastern Iowa Airport in Cedar Rapids.
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