By About 114 passengers on Monday escaped death by the whiskers as an Abuja bound Air Peace plane lost two out of its tyres during take-off in Lagos.
The Boeing 737 plane, with flight number 4P7198 and with 114 passengers and five cabin crew members on board, was scheduled to depart for Abuja at 10:30 am when the incident happened.
A New Telegraph staff, who was onboard the aircraft Jonathan Obiemeka Onyema, reported that the incident, which was signalled by a loud noise, was followed by a massive vibration forcing the pilot to struggle to bring the aircraft, which was approaching take off speed, to a stop.
The explosion and vibration caused panic among passengers who had earlier suffered 20 minutes delay at the local wing of the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos.
“The technical team just confirmed that we had tyres burst and we could not move this aircraft from here. We request all passengers to remain calm and wait for buses that will take you to the departure lounge,” the pilot announced.
Number one and number four tyres, he said, were affected.
