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- A pilot landed a flight in a city some 198 miles from its intended destination.
- Passengers said the pilot announced he had received the wrong flight path.
- United Nigeria Airlines claimed the flight was intentionally diverted because of poor weather.
A pilot on a Nigerian airline landed a plane in a city nearly 200 miles away from its intended destination, local news outlet The Cable reported on Saturday.
United Nigeria Airlines — a private airline based in the West African nation — was operating a domestic flight from Lagos to Abuja, the capital city, on Saturday, the airline said in a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter.
But the flight ended up in Asaba, a city some 198 miles south of Abuja, per the statement. It would be comparable to a flight headed for New York City landing in Washington, DC.
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Salihu Tanko Yakasai, a local politician and a passenger on board, wrote in a post on X on Saturday that flight attendants initially announced that they had landed in Abuja, the correct destination.
"We departed Lagos about an hour ago on @flyunitedng to Abuja, and upon arrival, the cabin crew confidently announced that we've arrived Abuja, only for us to realize that we landed in Asaba. Apparently, our pilot was given wrong flight plan from Lagos," he wrote.
Passengers were confused about the landing until an announcement was made.
"People were thinking that there's something we were not being told. Until the pilot announced to us that he received a wrong flight plan, that's when calmness was restored," a passenger told The Cable. The passenger was not identified in the report.
United Nigeria Airlines apologized for the incident in the statement posted on X on Sunday. The airline said the pilot had intentionally diverted the flight due to poor weather conditions in Abuja and was briefed beforehand.
"However, a wrong announcement was made by cabin crew upon landing safely in Asaba, creating confusion among the passengers," the airline said in the statement, adding that the flight had continued its journey and landed in Abuja. Business Insider could not independently verify the announcements made on board.
Another passenger posted a video on X showing the passengers' reactions after realizing they'd landed in Asaba. One man could be heard saying he only had 90 minutes to board his connecting flight from Abuja. BI could not independently verify the authenticity of the video.
"We legit got scared sha," the passenger wrote in the post.
We legit got scared sha.
— Augustine (@AugustineMacky) November 26, 2023
Laff wan kee me 😅 pic.twitter.com/sWxbnJeDna
Similar incidents have occurred over the years. In 2014, a Southwest Airlines flight arrived at an airport seven miles away from its intended destination in Missouri. And in 2019, a British Airways flight bound for Düsseldorf, Germany, mistakenly landed in Edinburgh, Scotland after the airline filed the wrong flight plan.
United Nigeria Airlines and Yakasai did not immediately respond to BI's requests for comment, sent outside regular business hours.
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