I left everything in the hands of God — Obasanjo speaks on escaping plane crash

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has spoken on the Ethiopian Airline flight that nearly crashed on Wednesday at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos.

The Boeing 777-300, with over 390 people on board landed on third attempt amid strong winds and heavy rain.

Obasanjo, who was returning from a meeting on implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AFCFTA) which ended on Tuesday in Addis Ababa, said he remained calm and read papers.

“I was on Ethiopian Airline: rain just came down heavily”, Obasanjo told Premium Times.

“The pilot thought he could land and he landed. He touched down, but I think he took a swift decision that he had to take off again.

“So he took off. If he did not, I think he probably would have overrun the runway. He then apologised and said he would try to land again. He tried again, and we landed safely. And we all clapped.

“He touched the ground. Then he took off and apologised and landed again at about 12.30. We spent just about 10 minutes in the air before we landed again.

“While it all happened, I was reading my papers. One man, who was next to me, said, ‘Oga you no worry?’

“I said ‘if I worry, what will I do? If you are on a plane and you have a situation like this, why should you worry?’ I left everything in the hands of God.”