Scores of Dana Airlines passengers escaped death by the whiskers Wednesday morning at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, as the door of its aircraft fell off on landing at the tarmac.

The passengers, who described the incident as scary, said the door may not have latched properly prior to take off.

One of the passengers on the flight, Dapo Sanwo, said the door panel was loose all through the flight. Another passenger, Ola Brown, who took to his twitter handle to vent his frustration, said the experience was scary.

Brown explained that the exit door of the aircraft was unstable all through the flight, adding that it fell off as soon as the aircraft hit the ground.

“Flew Dana. Exit door was unstable throughout flight. As we touched down, it fell off. Scary stuff,” he wrote on twitter.

“I was closer to the front. So when I heard the sound, I thought it was an explosion. I couldn’t quite comprehend that it (the door) had just fallen off.”

Reacting, Dana Air’s spokesman, Okwudili Chukwudi Ezenwa, said the door could have been opened without a conscious effort to open it.

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“By design, the emergency exit door of our aircraft are plug-type  backed by pressure, which ordinarily cannot fall off without tampering or conscious effort to open by a crew member or passenger.

“We also wish to enlighten the author that, when an aircraft is airborne, it is fully pressurised and there was no way the seat or door could have been ‘shaking’ as insinuated.

Ezenwa said a thorough inspection was, however, carried out on the said aircraft upon landing in Abuja, by the airline’s engineers and a team from the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).

“No issue was reported. There was also no threat to safety at any point. The flight was only delayed for eight minutes as we needed to demonstrate to the regulators that the safety and comfort of our guests is at the centre of our operations.

“We wish to apologise to our guests for any inconvenience such report may have caused and for the slight delay on the return service to Lagos. An investigation on the passenger is ongoing”, he added.

Expectedly, investigators from the Accident Investigation Bureau have been duly notified as a standard requirement and have begun a thorough investigation into the matter.