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…
In this post:
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?
At ABJ, aircraft appear to be dumped at random rather than parked in neat rows, unlike elsewhere. Also, an absence of buses means that pax walk to and from parked aircraft. So, this incident comes as no great surprise.
Sugar, was the horn not working or what?
The celebrity being one of the 5 people standing would explain the filming starting before the incident happened. It's also possible that the celebrity was blocking to try to get back on the plane and the pilot just got tired of this SOB. So..in a way, yes, the two incidents are related.
Trey's explanation makes sense to me too.
Well, now that's a way to deal with unruly customers.
Some may see the title of this article as racist because it says "Nigerian pilots". When there's a news story or accident, you don't usually see a reference to "American pilots" or other white countries.
A story might read "The KLM flight remained in Bangor because the pilots timed out", not "The KLM flight remained in Bangor because the Dutch pilots timed out."
Ben is good. This is likely unconscious implicit bias.
Calm down, I'm from naija and didn't think racism until you mentioned it. Don't over analyze this
derek,
Would you agree that other cultures can be far more explicitly biased in the way they refer to European/American white people? In Nigeria - "oyinbo". In Latin America - "gringo". In Hawaii - "haoli". And so on. Do these cultures get a pass a la soft bigotry of low expectations?
@simon
no.
Currently a farang here in Phuket. It is what it is. Nigerian pilots are pilots from Nigeria. Nothing more, nothing less.
As a minority, I don't think it's implicit bias. It's ok to say "Nigerian" pilot in the title because it's not a well known airline (à la your KLM example). For US based readers, saying "United/Delta pilot" in the headlines is more descriptive than a generic "American/US" pilot. If a US pilot of an unknown airline (say a cargo pilot) got in trouble abroad, I'm sure Ben would title it, "American pilot arrested for xyz.."
Nigerian is a nationality.
There are many different races in Nigeria
I mean Nigeria isn't exactly known for an exceptional safety record.