Dana Air says it is impossible for a door to fall off by itself "without a conscious effort by a passenger to open it”.

Reports of the apparent maintenance fail began to circulate yesterday after several social media users tweeted:

Olaudah Equiano®@Uruokpala

Video footage of @DanaAir plane that had its exit door fall off on landing at its destination yesterday. Scary stuff!!!

4:45 PM - Feb 7, 2018

Ola Brown(Orekunrin)@NaijaFlyingDr

Flew Dana. Exit door was unstable throughout the flight. As we touched down it fell off. Scary stuff.

7:50 AM - Feb 7, 2018

The flight had travelled from Lagos to Abuja when the door apparently came away.

But a Dana Air spokesman said there was no way it could have been shaken as, "when an aircraft is airborne, it is fully pressurized".

What's more, the airline went on to say it had been inspected by engineers alongside a Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority team and "no issue was reported".

The spokesman added: “The [return] flight was only delayed for eight minutes as we needed to demonstrate to the regulators that the safety and comfort of our guests is at the centre of our operations.”