A private business jet lost its door shortly after taking off from Abuja on Thursday, returned to the airport and landed safely with nine people on board, and the Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau has opened an investigation.
The aircraft is a Challenger 604, registration T7-SEI, operated by Triton Aviation. The bureau, known as NSIB, said it left Abuja for Lagos at 16:12 UTC.
Private jet loses door: what NSIB says happened
About three minutes into the flight, roughly three nautical miles from the airport and climbing through 3,500 feet, the crew declared a mayday after the door separated from the aircraft, the NSIB said.
The crew turned back, and the aircraft landed on Runway 22 at 16:34 UTC. Three crew members and six passengers were aboard, and the NSIB said all nine were accounted for. The NSIB’s times put the flight at about 22 minutes from departure to landing.
Fire and rescue crews and medical teams were placed on standby at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport before the jet returned. The duty air traffic controller tried to see the aircraft with binoculars but could not tell the door’s condition, and noticed the door was missing only after landing, according to a serious incident report.
What investigators will do
NSIB Director General Alex Badeh Jr. said the door has been recovered and secured at the bureau’s wreckage hangar. The bureau has started work to establish the circumstances of the event and promised updates as the investigation progresses.
Video on social media appears to show a door lying on farmland near Abuja. The footage has not been independently verified.
A Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority spokesman, Michael Achimugu, confirmed the incident but said the NSIB has jurisdiction over the investigation.
What is not yet known
The cause is unknown. The NSIB has not said why the door separated, and it has not linked the event to maintenance, design or crew actions. Those questions are what the investigation is meant to answer.
Under international rules, investigators normally issue a preliminary report within 30 days and a final report within 12 months, though many take longer. The NSIB has not given a date for either.
Reports differ slightly on timing. One report cited a 4:17 p.m. takeoff and a 4:34 p.m. landing, while the NSIB gave 16:12 and 16:34 UTC.
NSIB has handled other recent incidents involving business jets. In December 2025, it investigated a Hawker 800XP whose nose landing gear collapsed during landing in Kano after the crew reported a gear indication problem.
In flight door separations are rare, and investigators in such cases typically review maintenance records, the door’s locking mechanism and pre flight checks.
The Challenger 604 is a twin engine business jet from Bombardier, and this one carries a foreign registration, as reports noted.
The flight was on the Abuja to Lagos route, among the busiest domestic corridors in Nigeria.
What is known is limited to the safe landing, the recovered door and an open investigation. Everything else, from cause to responsibility, waits for the NSIB’s findings.
