It was a minimal tyre burst – Air Peace reacts to Ilorin mishap

The management of Air Peace says its aircraft en-route Ilorin from Abuja had a “minimal tyre burst” after landing at the Ilorin international airport, Kwara state.

The Air Peace noted that passengers on board were “disembarked seamlessly” after the incident occurred at the airport runway.

It was gathered that the incident occurred Friday morning when the B737-500 aircraft with registration number 5N-BQR was taxing.

There were reports on social media that an Air Peace crash landed at the Ilorin airport as passengers escaped death.

But Air Peace, in a statement on Saturday sent to TheCable, described the report as “sensational publication of falsehood”, noting that no such incident happened.

“For the record, no such thing happened. The reports misrepresented and exaggerated the facts. We can confirm that the aircraft in question landed safely but had a minimal tyre burst while taxing,” the statement reads.

“This debunks all the mischievously headlined reports circulating online, which should be disregarded.

Our aircraft neither crashed nor crash landed in Ilorin or in any place for that matter. This kind of sensationalism is bad and was intended to cause panic in the minds of the flying public.

“It was duly reported to the authorities and passengers disembarked seamlessly. The tyres have, however, been fixed and the aircraft is intact. We condemn sensational publication of falsehood.”

In March 2021,an aircraft belonging to Air Peace had a tyre burst while landing at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos.

In the March accident, the Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) said no casualty was recorded as the 127 passengers and six crew members on board were rescued.