The serene environment of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, MMIA, Lagos was almost thrown into chaos yesterday following the collapse of at least four arriving passengers from Atlanta, Georgia.
The passengers who had arrived the country aboard Delta Air Lines were said to have collapsed due to the unventilated arrival hall of the terminal. The plane had disembarked the passengers at the D-Wing of the terminal. A source close to the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, at the terminal confided in our correspondent that the cooling systems mounted in various strategic places within the airport were ineffective, which caused the collapse of the passengers.
Although, the passengers were later revived by other passengers and the personnel of the Nigerian Immigration Services, NIS, at the airport, other passengers almost caused chaos at the airport because of the unpalatable situation.
Another source told our correspondent that the ongoing remodelling works at the airport was responsible for the collapse of several facilities at the airport, saying that users of the airport, including passengers, had been using the airport under serious health challenge. The source said, “It is true that we had such situation at the airport today (yesterday), but the incident was caused by the cooling systems, which have become epileptic for over a year now.
The government said that they are remodeling the airport, but I don’t know how many years it will take them to complete ordinary remodeling. “If you look around the airport now, you will see banners conspicuously placed in several places within the airport by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, appealing to users, especially the passengers, to bear with them. But the unfortunate thing is that the remodeling exercise at the airport has been stalled for several months at the terminal.
One hopes that the work would be concluded very soon so that passengers and other workers can breathe peacefully.” The General Manager, Public Affairs, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, Mr. Yakubu Dati declined to confirm or deny the incident when our correspondent gave him a call. Dati promised to send an online statement to that effect, but as at the time of filing this report, he was yet to do so. It would be recalled that sometime in September, pandemonium almost broke out at the terminal due to a similar situation.
The passengers were furious then that the Immigration Service failed to make adequate preparations for their arrival and kept them on a queue for hours. One of the passengers had collapsed at the terminal, apparently from exhaustion. At least 1, 440 passengers were at the arrival hall of the terminal before the incident happened, with four airlines arriving simultaneously at the airport.