Aslan
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LAGOS - A lone driver rammed his taxi into a stationary Boeing 737 aircraft preparing to take off at a domestic airport in Nigeria on Wednesday, airport and airline officials said.
There were no casualties in the incident which took place at an airport in the southern Calabar city, the capital of one of Nigerias nine oil producing states, Cross River.
The taxi drove at high speed through two gates manned by Nigerian Airforce personnel, before slamming into the undercarriage of the aircraft belonging to one of the countrys leading private airlines Arik Air.
One of our aircraft scheduled to leave Calabar for Abuja with 95 passengers on board... had completed boarding and was ready for taxiing when all of a sudden a car coming from a gate rammed into the aircraft and hit the undercarriage, Arik spokesman Adebanji Ola told AFP.
But the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) said only crew were on board the aircraft and they were safely evacuated.
The driver of the old Audi was arrested and investigations have been launched.
He came from nowhere, at high speed, breaking the first and the second gate. He caught the airforce unaware, said the federal aviation spokesman Akin Olukunle.
Neither his identity nor the motive has been established yet.
Three months ago a young Nigerian man, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, was involved in a botched attempt to blow up an American jet with 290 people on board with a device sewn into his underwear.
Taxi rams into a Boeing 737 in Nigerian airport
There were no casualties in the incident which took place at an airport in the southern Calabar city, the capital of one of Nigerias nine oil producing states, Cross River.
The taxi drove at high speed through two gates manned by Nigerian Airforce personnel, before slamming into the undercarriage of the aircraft belonging to one of the countrys leading private airlines Arik Air.
One of our aircraft scheduled to leave Calabar for Abuja with 95 passengers on board... had completed boarding and was ready for taxiing when all of a sudden a car coming from a gate rammed into the aircraft and hit the undercarriage, Arik spokesman Adebanji Ola told AFP.
But the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) said only crew were on board the aircraft and they were safely evacuated.
The driver of the old Audi was arrested and investigations have been launched.
He came from nowhere, at high speed, breaking the first and the second gate. He caught the airforce unaware, said the federal aviation spokesman Akin Olukunle.
Neither his identity nor the motive has been established yet.
Three months ago a young Nigerian man, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, was involved in a botched attempt to blow up an American jet with 290 people on board with a device sewn into his underwear.
Taxi rams into a Boeing 737 in Nigerian airport
