May 20, (THEWILL) – Normal flight operations have resumed last night after a slight disruption on Thursday, due to the discovery of a mangled body of a dead man found on Runway 18R of the international wing of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos.
The resumption was confirmed by a source in one of the aviation agencies, who hinted, that full flight operations have resumed, while the runway has been cleared.
“Flight operations have resumed fully and the runway has been cleared”, the source said.
THEWILL gathered that the corpse was suddenly found on Runway 18R, during a routine runway inspection by FAAN personnel.
During the temporary shutdown of the runway, international flights were prevented from landing and taking off from the airport’s international terminal for a short period of time.
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.
Commenting on the development, Secretary General of Association of Nigerian Aviation Professional (ANAP), Comrade Abdulrasaq Saidu, regretted the unfortunate incident, advising that more needs to be done in terms of security around the airport.
Comrade Saidu said it is very dangerous and unsafe when unidentified persons or objects found their way into the sensitive area of the airport, describing the incident as a major security breach.
According to Saidu, the perimeter fence of the MMIA should be given serious attention in order not to expose the airport to various security breaches.
Anthony Awunor, is a business correspondent who holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Linguistics (UNILAG). He is also an alumnus of the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria Kaduna State. He lives in Lagos.
