Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, says the event that led to the Asaba private jet incident was a breach of security.
Speaking during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Thursday, Keyamo said the pilot and the crew of the jet were being held for questioning at the Department of State Services, DSS.
He said the that the incident occurred when the plane landed on a road outside the airport and not on the runway despite clearance from the tower.
“The private jet incident in Asaba, as I speak with you, it was a security breach, and we are treating it as such.
“The pilot and crew are still in DSS detention and have been going through vigorous questioning since that day. Because tower cleared it to land. So, it had nothing to do with our navigational capacity.
“The tower in Asaba said, ‘Are you approaching here? It’s okay. Land’. Two minutes later, the man looked out from the tower and said, you are not on the runway. Where are you? Are you parked? You are not on the apron.
“So they landed in a concrete road outside the airport. And guess what? When he landed there, he saw that he made a mistake, he should have actually waited for accident investigators, the regulators and everybody to come and look at what he was doing. But this guy took off again.
“It was then I came into the picture. I called Lagos and as they were arriving in Lagos, they were picked up and they are still in detention,” Keyamo said.
‘Security breach’ – Keyamo gives update on Asaba private jet incident