Arik Air flight nearly crushed a man in ragged clothes
and dishevelled hair who stood few metres away from the touch down area at the
domestic runway of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, known as
Runway 18L about 4:30 pm last Tuesday.
An Arik Air flight bound for Uyo
was waiting at the threshold of the runway, known as holding point for the
arriving aircraft to land so that it would take off, but as the aircraft was to
touch down the passengers and the cockpit crew of the waiting aircraft saw a
man walking about near the landing point of the aircraft and escaped being
crushed by the tyres and the wing of the aircraft.
When the man identified as mad because of his slovenly,
ragged appearance was spared by the aircraft that landed, he walked to the
threshold where the Uyo bound flight was waiting and began to knock at the
aircraft door, requesting that door be opened for him.
Eye witness account disclosed that the pilot of the
aircraft was afraid that the man might walk farther towards the engine of the
aircraft and he would be sucked in and roasted, so he quickly switched off the
engine of the plane, sustaining the system of the aircraft, including the air
conditioning with auxiliary power unit (APU).
At that point the situation had become an emergency so he
quickly called the Control Tower and Aviation Security, informing them about
the man walking about in the most restricted area of the airport.
The pilot who nearly landed his aircraft on the man was
said to have also called the Control Tower immediately he landed and the
incident was recorded on the log book by the Air Traffic Controllers who were
on duty at the time the incident happened.
“The pilot said that he feared for the man’s life when he
came knocking on the aircraft door because few steps would have taken him into
the engine of the aircraft that would have roasted him and that was why he
quickly switched off the engine. That would have been catastrophic and tragic
had it happened that way,” the source explained.
It took 20 minutes before two aviation security vehicles
coming from the opposite sides, one from the international side of the runway
and the other from the General Aviation Terminal (GAT)and converged before the mad man.
Aviation Security officials jumped out, held him and
forced him into one of the vans and whisked him away and it was then that the
controllers allowed the aircraft lined up at the holding point to begin to take
off.
The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN)
explained that the man probably scaled the perimeter fencing to gain entry to
the runway. This incident reinforces the fact that the in spite of
the efforts made by the agency, the airport is still porous.
Runway incursion has been a regular occurrence at the
nation’s airports and this is attributed to lack of perimeter fencing at most
of these airports and that is why the International Civil Aviation Organisation
(ICAO) has not certified any of these airports because they have not met
accepted safety standards for their certification.
Reacting to this incident, industry operators who spoke
to THISDAY said that FAAN should consider it as top priority to complete the
perimeter fencing project that is going on in some of the nation’s airports.
One of the operators urged the agency to intensify the
regular patrol of the runways and the perimeter area of the airport to ensure
that runway incursion such as the above incident, did not happen again.
THISDAY
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