Bomb explosion rocks Arik plane; victim recounts ordeal

Despite efforts by the Nigeria Aviation Agency to check risk of traveling by air in the country, domestic airline operators are seemingly not livings up to expectation.

Ambassador David Udo, a passenger who recently boarded Arik Airline from Abuja to Port Harcourt, in a church service conducted at The Apostolic Church, Ndiya Area Headquarters, Nsit Ubium Local Government Area on Sunday 21^st April, 2013 narrated the trauma he faced in one of the planes belonging to Arik Airline.

Addressing the church congregation comprising personalities and top government functionaries who came all out to the church service, Ambassador David Udo who was said to have been invited as Chairman ‘1’ to the occasion by the organizers said only the hand of God spared his life and that of over 153 passengers on board from the bomb explosion that rocked the airplane fifteen minutes after takeoff.

“…a pastor of The Apostolic church told me in 2010 – fast and pray else there will be a disaster that will come up to you. He said fast for three days. You know when the pastor tells you the truth; you know that is the truth. So after that Sunday, on Tuesday I went back to Abuja and by Weekend of that same week, I came back from Abuja, I was flying with Arik Air. Fifteen minutes after takeoff, there was a bomb explosion inside Arik Air. We were flying from Abuja to Port Harcourt and before we knew it, the whole inside of the Aircraft was filled with smoke, when somebody went to open where we kept our bags, there was a big fire. Everybody in the aircraft said their last prayer. Before then, a pastor had told me that God will avert a disaster, and that pastor was not a pastor in my church, he was a pastor of The Apostolic Church, who is sitting here, Pastor Ekong and he prayed with me. Because of my presence there, the lives of about one hundred and fifty three people were saved when nobody had in mind that anybody may be saved because we were traveling almost forty Thousand feet above sea level. And I told God – ‘God, a man of God told me and I believed him that a disaster will be averted, let this disaster be averted and let nothing happen to all of us here. Because of me let everybody here be saved’, that was the only prayer I Prayed inside the aircraft and after praying everybody shouted Amen. Then somebody just came and remove the bag and the fire ended there”, David Udo recounted.

Meanwhile, feelers have it that Ambassador David Udo’s ordeal in Arik Aircraft has scared thousands of Arik passengers from using the aircraft on grounds that the airline is not safe to board.

But a regular traveler with Arik who spoke with Connoisseur said the story is a mere illusion as he has never heard of such report openly or secretly.