Bishop David Oyedepo of Living Faith Church, aka Winners’ Chapel, on
Friday chronicled his escape from a recent incident that could have led
to a crash of the plane that he was travelling in.
The respected Bishop was travelling from Cyprus to Israel in company with his wife and three other key members of the church.
He described the incident in a written testimony read out to
congregation by a church member during a thanksgiving service at the
Canaanland headquarters of the church in Ota, Ogun State.
According to the testimony, it was the third potential plane crash that the bishop would escape.
He said the first was an incident in 1997 while travelling from Kaduna
to Lagos while the second was during a Lagos flight to Kano in 1998.
In the 1997 incident, Oyedepo said “all hell broke loose” and “landing in Lagos became impossible” during a heavy thunderstorm.
He said the aircraft went up and down as the captain attempted to land during several attempts until he eventually landed.
He said, “In the second incident, one engine of our aircraft failed
in-flight. On May 4, 1998, we were on a flight to Kano when I noticed
our plane was going down. I went to the cockpit to ask the pilot what
was going on. Then, he announced that we just lost one engine.
“Calmly, I told him to make a turn back to Lagos. We were eight on
board. As soon as we landed and we were at our packing space, we heard a
sound that announced the death of the second engine.”
In the 3rd and recent incident, Oyedepo said the cause of the incident
was a stabiliser trim motor failure, according to the report of the
captain, Samuel Adeboga.
The bishop said, “After the failure, the auto-pilot could no longer
exact the required pressure to keep the aircraft in the required
altitude for stability.
“The captain disconnected the auto-pilot and returned the aircraft to
the required altitude for that phase of flight. Because the aircraft was
out of trim, during the take-over, the aircraft abruptly pitched up
with much G-force and the captain counter-acted it with a pitch
downforce.
“These two counter-forces caused the abrupt turbulence and movement in
the cabin and the cargo hold. Heavy items in the cargo hold fell from
their compartments and made loud bang noise. We thank the God of this
great commission for making the pilot act promptly. Similar incidents in
the past have resulted in fatal accidents and loss of life.”
