The Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau has confirmed that the pilot and co-pilot of an Air Peace flight tested positive for alcohol after a runway excursion at Port Harcourt International Airport on July 13, 2025.

A preliminary report released Friday also revealed that a cabin crew member tested positive for Tetrahydrocannabinol, the psychoactive substance in cannabis.

The incident involved Air Peace flight 5N-BQQ, a Boeing 737-524 operating the Lagos–Port Harcourt route with 103 passengers and crew, according to NAN.

The aircraft executed an unstabilised approach and landed long on Runway 21, touching down 2,264 metres from the threshold before overrunning and stopping 209 metres into the clearway. All 103 passengers and crew escaped without injury. Preliminary tests confirmed alcohol use by the pilots and THC in a cabin crew member, findings the NSIB is reviewing as part of its safety investigation.

“The Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau has indicted an Air Peace pilot and a Co-pilot for taking alcohol and other substances.

“The accident investigators tested the crew positive for the substances after the aircraft they flew was involved in a runway excursion at the Port Harcourt International Airport on July 13,” the report read in part.

The NSIB report stated that initial toxicological tests on the flight crew returned positive results for substances, including evidence of alcohol use.

In its preliminary recommendations, the bureau urged Air Peace to strengthen crew resource management training, particularly in handling unstabilised approaches and making go-around decisions—and to reinforce procedures for verifying crew fitness before flight dispatch. It added that a final report with further safety recommendations will be released in due course.

Air Peace, in a statement on Friday, responded to media reports on the NSIB’s preliminary findings, saying it had yet to receive any official communication from the bureau more than a month after the incident.

The airline stressed that it enforces routine alcohol and drug testing, upholds a zero-drug policy, and applies alcohol restrictions stricter than regulatory requirements.

It added that the captain has been grounded for disregarding CRM principles and ignoring a go-around call, while the co-pilot, who initiated the go-around advice, has been cleared by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority to return to duty.