IRS F100 near Niamey on May 10th 2014, loss of radio contact and emergency landing

An IRS Airlines Fokker 100, registration 5N-SIK performing a positioning flight from Bratislava (Slovakia) to Kano (Nigeria) with 2 crew, was enroute near Niamey (Niger) when radio and radar contact was lost with the aircraft. A short time later the first officer of the flight tweeted: "still alive boss" and posted a photo of the aircraft, that came to a stop without gear (unclear whether a belly landing was attempted or whether the gear collapsed on landing).

Nigeria's Civil Aviation Authorities confirmed the aircraft lost radio contact at about 20:00L (19:00Z) when enroute near Ganla (Niger), Niamey was informed and ready for a possible emergency landing.

The location of the emergency landing is still unknown at this time except for being within the borders of Niger, neighbour country of Nigeria.

5N-SIK had been in Slovakia for a C-Check following a hydraulics problem which prompted Niger's Civil Aviation Authority to ground the airline in October 2013 as the airline no longer had a minimum of two serviceable aircraft. The return of 5N-SIK was eagerly awaited by the airline to be able to resume service.

5N-SIK after the emergency landing (Photo: First Officer of the flight JamyL MD Abubakar):