United Airlines flight UA613, a United States flag carrier, was outbound from Lagos to Washington late Thursday night. It declared an emergency and returned to Lagos early Friday.
The flight, which had 245 passengers, eight flight attendants, and three pilots, directly returned to Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) after departing in Ivory Coast airspace.
Saturday Vanguard reported one of the passengers, who refused to disclose his identity, shared details of the incident.
His words: “The flight took off at 11:50 pm. All through, we (passengers) did not experience any turbulence. We were flying well without any issue until we reached Senegal. At the time, it had been announced to us (passengers) that we could unfasten our seatbelts. The plane was on autopilot when it happened. We had also been served food and drinks.
“There were three pilots. The major one had gone to use the restroom and another took charge when we noticed a sudden drop. The impact of the drop resulted in my slamming my head against the plane’s roof. You can see in some of the pictures that I just showed you that there were blood stains on the plane’s roof.
“After hitting my head, I was unconscious for a while because one of the medical personnel on the plane was brave enough to assist me to regain awareness. When I regained consciousness, I saw that everyone was terrified. I heard people shouting ‘God of Chosen. God of Prophet Ebuka of Zion.’
“We were all frightened. One black flight attendant was so scared. In fact, there was a woman who wanted to use the restroom when the incident happened, she was badly injured. Three times, the plane dropped with force, and the pilot struggled to make the plane ascend.
This happened for 20 minutes, although we flew for about four hours. While it was happening, the pilot told us that navigation was lost. We were told so many things. However, the pilot was brave enough to return us to Lagos successfully.
