Terrified airline passengers could only watch as the door of a plane opened and then fell off during landing.
Footage from inside the Dana Airlines flight showed concerned flyers taking pictures of the missing door as the plane landed in Abuja, Nigeria.
One passenger, Ola Brown, said the exit door had been ‘unstable throughout the flight’ and fallen off as the plane touched down, leaving a gaping hole in the cabin.
Another person on the flight, Igah Dagogo, said he had seen that the emergency exit was not properly shut before the plane left Lagos, according to CNN.
He said: ‘Maybe it was breeze, but the door came off completely and the passengers came to check and began shouting and taking photos.
‘I wonder what would have happened if the door fell off mid-air.’
In the short clip most passengers are seated for landing but some get out of their seats to inspect the absent door and take pictures.
While scared passengers waited for the plane to stop the people on board are seen shaking their heads in disbelief at the situation.
Another passenger to tweet about the experience was Olaudah Equiano, who described it as ‘scary stuff’.
Footage from inside the Dana Airlines flight showed concerned flyers taking pictures of the missing door as the plane landed in Abuja, Nigeria
One passenger, Ola Brown, said the exit door had been ‘unstable throughout the flight’ and fallen off as the plane touched down
All the passengers on board denied having tampered with the door, BBC News reports.
But a statement from Dana Airlines said the door would have been fully pressurised when the flight was airborne and a passenger must have caused it to open.
The company said: ‘We wish to state categorically that this could never have happened without a conscious effort by a passenger to open it.’
‘A thorough inspection was however carried out on the said aircraft upon landing in Abuja, by our engineers and a team from the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, and no issue was reported. There was also no threat to safety at any point.’
In the short clip most passengers are seated for landing but some get out of their seats to inspect the absent door and take pictures
A statement from Dana Airlines said the door would have been fully pressurised when the flight was airborne and that a passenger would have had to make a ‘conscious effort’ to open it