A Royal Air Maroc flight, which was about to take off to Rabat, the Moroccan capital from the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos aborted takeoff on Sunday when the Pilot discovered the cargo door light was on.
In what was described as a precautionary measure, the Pilot-in-Command of the Boeing 737-700 aircraft with registration number CN-RNQ reportedly alerted the Control Tower and requested to return to the apron.
The flight was about to depart Lagos at about 05:30am and it was about taking off when the “cargo door light was flickering on.”
However, according to the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), visual observation by the Aviation Security Personnel showed that the door was closed.
Spokesperson of FAAN, Mrs. Henrietta Yakubu, who confirmed the development said the Aviation Security escort team remained with the aircraft as it taxied back to the apron.
“At the apron, all concerned officers of FAAN and other agencies were on ground for thorough inspection,” she said.
After the aircraft was taxied back to the airport, all parties concerned supervised the offloading and the re-screening of the entire luggage belonging to passengers onboard the aircraft.
This is in accordance with the standard and recommended practices, FAAN said.
Mrs. Yakubu allayed fear of passengers, saying all the luggage was intact as certified by the team on ground while the flight eventually took-off at 10:06am in the presence of the Airport Manager and Chief Security Officer of the Airport.
It would be recalled that last week, the same airline arrived the airport when the baggage compartment was discovered to be open fuelling speculations of possible attack on the aircraft which FAAN debunked.
However, investigation is still ongoing on why the baggage hold was opened following confirmation that no bag was missing.