By Chisaa Okoye (Business Reporter)

The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), said it had commenced investigation into the circumstances surrounding the November 26, landing of a United Nigeria flight NUA 0506 to a wrong destination.

The Aircraft wasdestined for Abuja but landed in Asaba, the capital of Delta state, to the cabin crew and passengers’ utter bewilderment.

The spokesman for the airline, Mr Achilleus Uchegbu, in a statement, claimed that the flight which took off in Lagos en route Abuja on Sunday was temporarily diverted to the Asaba International Airport, Delta due to poor destination weather.

He stated that at all material time, the pilots of the aircraft were aware of the temporary diversion and were properly briefed.

”However, a wrong announcement was made by cabin crew upon landing in Asaba creating confusion among the passengers”, the statement added.

But aviation industry sources who described the incident as “a huge embarrassment” to Nigeria aviation industry, noted that upon landing in Asaba, the cabin crew had announced the aircraft had landed in Abuja, an indication that they were unaware of any emergency landing arrangement.

“How can the pilots be aware of emergency landing and did not convey the information to both the crew members and the passengers. This is very strange. So the NCAA’s investigation is very important in order to ascertain what actually caused the wrong destination landing” a source said.

The source also hinted that the NCAA Director–General, Capt. Musa Nuhu had issued a query to the airline management to explain in details what actually happened.

In a statement, Monday, Nuhu, disclosed that preliminary actions have been taken against the airline pending the conclusion of the investigation

“The Authority wishes to reassure the traveling public that it will leave no stone unturned as it has always done in the past to ensure continued safety of the aviation industry, ” Nuhu said.