According to the passengers, the door appeared semi-open and unstable throughout the flight, and they could hear a "rattling" sound coming from it, while flight attendants insisted that everything was fine.
"The flight was noisy with vibrations from the floor panel. I noticed the emergency door latch was loose and dangling,'' said Dapo Sanwo, from Lagos, as reported by BBC. "When we landed and the plane was taxiing back to the park point, we heard a poof-like explosion, followed by a surge of breeze and noise. It was terrible."
When the door suddenly fell off its hinges and fell into the plane, it reportedly nearly hit a passenger.
Dana Air has denied its responsibility for the incident, saying that it wouldn't have happened without a "conscious effort by a passenger to open [the door]." But one passenger told the BBC that everyone on board had denied tampering with the door.
The airline said there was no threat to passengers' safety "at any point" because when the aircraft was airborne, the door was "fully pressurised" and could not be shaking. It added that a thorough inspection was carried out by its engineers and a team from the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), and no issue was reported.
Doc, I shudder to think what would have happened if the door had fallen off at 33,000 feet. @DanaAir has crashed before, killing very many, including several friends of mine. NCAA really needs to investigate this. Thank God you are safe.
Dana Air's license had previously been suspended after two deadly incidents in 2012 and 2013. The company only resumed flights after January 2014. But its unpopularity is on the rise.