Huh: Nigerian Pilots Suspended After Nearly Running Over Five People

This is truly one of the most bizarre aviation incidents that I’ve ever seen, and it’s not clear to me if this was an honest mistake, or what…

Close call involving ValueJet CRJ-900 in Abuja

This incident happened at around 8:40AM on Tuesday, August 5, 2025, at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (ABV) in Abuja, Nigeria. It involves a ValueJet CRJ-900 with the registration code 5N-BXS, which was preparing to operate the short 318-mile domestic flight to Lagos (LOS).

In a video that has been posted online by the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), the plane can be seen parked at the stand and having its engines running, with five people standing in front of the plane (mostly airport staff). Despite that, the plane starts its taxi, and nearly runs over all five of those people.

It’s amazing how close of a call this was, as one person ducked a split second before they would’ve been hit by the wing. Thank goodness this wasn’t a bigger plane, where there would’ve been even more risk of someone being ingested into the engine.

The NCAA has suspended the licenses of the two pilots involved in this incident, pending the conclusion of the investigation. The two pilots have even been named by the NCAA. Per the regulators:

Preliminary information indicates that the pilot in question commenced departure procedures from the designated bay without adhering to the mandatory pre-departure clearance protocols. This reckless action endangered the safety of ground personnel and other airport users, contravening established civil aviation regulations and international safety standards. The NCAA views this incident with utmost seriousness.

The airline has confirmed the incident in a statement, acknowledging the seriousness of what happened, and states that it’s fully cooperating with the NCAA. The airline claims that “safety is not negotiable,” and that the company “remains committed to accountability and improvement across all levels of our operations.”

A disruptive musician had just been removed

What would possess pilots to act this way? Well, this is where the story gets even stranger. According to the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), notable musician King Wasiu Ayinde Marshal (also known as K1 De Ultimate) was on this flight.

During boarding, he reportedly attempted to carry an unidentified liquid substance onboard in a flask (later determined to be alcohol, which is banned on domestic flights in Nigeria), despite repeated warnings from airport security personnel and the captain. He even reportedly poured the contents of the flask onto a security officer who boarded the aircraft.

Eventually he was escorted off the plane, as he refused to cooperate with the crew or authorities. What’s not entirely clear here is how exactly this ties into the above.

I suspect that this guy was one of the five people standing in front of the plane, and maybe he was refusing to move. So did the pilots then decide to just start taxiing, knowing that the five of them were still standing right by the nose of the plane? If so, that would be wild.

Or could it be that the pilots simply couldn’t see the five people standing at the nose of the plane, and they thought they were clear to go? Either way, procedures definitely weren’t followed…

Bottom line

Two pilots working for Nigerian carrier ValueJet have been suspended, after they nearly ran over five people while starting their taxi. I’ve never seen anything quite like this before, so I’m curious what an investigation determines.

Prior to this, a Nigerian musician had been removed from the airplane, after he reportedly brought a flask of alcohol onboard. It’s not entirely clear if he was one of the five people standing in front of the nose of the aircraft, though it sounds like he might have been.

What do you make of this incident?