By LAWANI MIKAIRU
Turkish airline has said the pilot and crew of TK0626 flight from Lagos to Istanbul scheduled for Monday knew that the plane was faulty as the cooling system of the plane was not working and arrangement was being made for technicians to fix the fault

According to reports, the Country Manager (Nigeria) of Turkish Airline while addressing the passengers “ admitted that the management knew the air conditioning system was faulty and had gotten technicians to carry out repairs.

“He said the pilot and crew only wanted to test run the plane with the passengers in it and had no intention of flying. He said there would have been no problem if the plane had flown because the fault was not a mechanical one.”

The flight was however cancelled as passengers refused to travel due to the plane’s faulty air conditioning system. One of the passengers on the flight, Richard Olatunji, was quoted by the reports as saying that the plane was taxing at about 1:30 a.m. when the faulty cooling system was discovered.

According to Olatunji “Here is hot and the crew is insisting on flying despite our protest. In fact one of the passengers has fainted and the crew was doing resuscitation on her in the plane and still insisted on flying. The pilot even said if we came down then we forfeit our money.”
“Our clothes were drenched, they were working on the plane with us inside for about two hours and they said they have to close the door of the air craft to test if it was working or not and there was child in the plane.

“The air craft we boarded was nothing near cold, it was very hot when we came in which ought not to be so, that means they knew beforehand that there was something wrong with the plane. “
The flight which was initially billed to take off from the Murtala Muhammed International Airport Lagos, at about 10:45 p.m. was eventually cancelled when the passengers started protesting on board. The passengers were later taken to the Golden Tulip hotel in Festac at about 4 a.m.by the airline.

Efforts to speak with the Media Consultants of Turkish Airlines in Nigeria to confirm the reports proved abortive as his cell phone was repeatedly said to have been switched off.