Lagos Airport Temporarily, Flights Diverted After Mangled Corpse Was Found On Runway

By Edna Wande On May 20, 2022

Mangled body of a dead man found on Runway 18R of Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos state, led to international wing of the nation’s flagship airport being shut temporarily in the early hours of Thursday May 19, it has emerged.

Identity of the corpse could not be ascertained and it could not be established whether the dead man was knocked down by an aircraft taking off or landing on the runway.

According to airport officials who spoke to ThePunch, the runway was temporarily shut down while a team of officials from the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) evacuated the corpse from the runway.

International flights were prevented from landing and taking off from the airport’s international terminal after temporary shutdown of the runway.

The airlines include 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.

A top police official at the MMIA who confirmed the development to the publication, said the command was called upon in the early hours of Thursday to evacuate the corpse from Runway 18R.

He added that 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.