Abuja: Seven months after one of its aircraft crashed, leaving 163 people dead, an airline owned by Indians has resumed its domestic services in Nigeria.
Dana Air`s Abuja-Lagos flight had crashed on June 3 near the international airport in the West African country`s commercial capital of Lagos.
"The plane took off by 9.45 am from Lagos, went to Abuja and later returned", sources at the Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos told a news agency.
The spokesman for the airline Tony Usidamen said he boarded the aircraft with some passengers for the first commercial flight from Lagos to Abuja after the June 5 air mishap in which the two engines of its plane, McDonnell Douglas-83 aircraft failed mid-air.
After the accident, aviation authorities here suspended the operating licence of the airline but restored it in September following a rigorous audit.
Controversy had trailed the return of the airliner with some lawmakers speaking against its resumption of operations. While some newspaper columnists saw the attack on the airline as racist against a company as it was owned by Indians.
Dana Air was considered to be one of the most efficient in the country before the crash.
PTI
