The international wing of the Murtala Muhammed International
Airport, Lagos, was temporarily shut in the early hours of Thursday after the
mangled body of a dead man was found on Runway 18R of the nation’s flagship
airport.
The identity of the corpse could not be ascertained as of
press time. Also, it could not be established whether the dead man was knocked
down by an aircraft taking off or landing on the runway.
However, airport officials told our correspondent that the
runway was temporarily shut down while a team of officials from the Federal
Airports Authority of Nigeria and the Nigeria Police Force evacuated the corpse
from the runway.
During the temporary shutdown of the runway, international flights were prevented from landing and taking off from the airport’s international terminal.
Among the flights that could not land due to the shutdown
was an Ethiopian Airlines flight 3907, a Boeing 77F aircraft with registration
number ETAVN, which was coming from Lome, Togo to Lagos, Nigeria.
The flight was later diverted back to Lome after holding for
a while.
Airport officials said the corpse was suddenly found on
Runway 18R during a routine runway inspection by FAAN personnel.
The officials were said to have reported a corpse on the
runway around the cargo area.
The spokesperson for FAAN, Mrs. Faithful Avokerie
Hope-Ivbaz, could not immediately confirm the incident, saying she had yet to
be briefed on the development.
Also, the Police Public Relations Officer, Airport Command,
Mr Olayinka Ojelade, said he had yet to get the requited signal on the
incident.
He promised to get back. As of the time of filing this
report, he had yet to do so. However, a top police official at the MMIA
confirmed the development.
He said the command was called upon in the early hours of
Thursday to evacuate the corpse from Runway 18R.
According to him, the police are still investigating the
identity of the dead man and how he got to the security area of the
international airport.
However, an aviation security expert and former Military
Commandant of the MMIA, Group Captain John Ojikutu,retd, said there was a need
to investigate how the unidentified man found his way into the sensitive area
of the airport, describing the incident as a major security breach.
According to him, the perimeter fence of the MMIA is not a
security fence, adding that this has exposed the airport to various security
breaches.
Ojikutu said, “The authorities need to investigate how the
man got to the airport. Nobody can say much now; but he may have been knocked
down by the wingspan or undercarriage of a jumbo jet but it is too early to say
anything like that now. But we need to
examine the issue of houses that have been built too close to the Lagos
airport. The rule says no building should be situated less than six metres to
the airport structure or fence. However, we have seen cases of people crossing
the runway before.
“The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority and FAAN need to
investigate this to ascertain what really happened. They need to find out the
flights that landed before that incident. The current airport perimeter fence
is not a security fence and we need to do something about it.”
Meanwhile, there have been a couple of airport security
breaches in recent times.
A mishap was averted at the airside of the Murtala Muhammed
Airport, Lagos some months ago when a speeding vehicle had a near collision
with a Dana Air plane taxiing to take off on Runway 18L of the airport.
The unfortunate incident, which happened on December 21,
2021, occurred barely one week after a landing Max Air jet almost rammed into a
malfunctioning car being tested on
Runway 18L.
Also, there was pandemonium at the airside of the Lagos
airport on December 27, 2019 when an unidentified man found his way into the
airside mysteriously and mounted a moving Air Peace plane.
The man was later arrested by security operatives who were
notified by the pilot of a private jet coming behind the Air Peace plane.
The incident happened barely six months after a man found
his way into the Lagos airport and climbed a Port Harcourt-bound Azman Airlines
plane.
The man, believed to be mentally ill, was later identified
as Usman Adamu from the Republic of Niger.
The Police said the Nigerien could not speak or understand
English Language.
The authorities said then that investigation was still
ongoing to ascertain how Adamu gained access to the restricted area at the
airport.
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com