Flight operations and other activities were disrupted again at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) in Lagos, early this week. This time it happened when passengers travelling to Europe and America were preparing to board their respective flights. Reports said the disruption happened around 10.30pm in the night.
Sahara Reporters said one of the affected passengers, who simply identified herself as Mosunmola, said in a text message to the online medium that the entire airport terminal was thrown into darkness, forcing airline staff and profilers to carry out check-in procedures with torchlights and other manual equipment.
Mosunmola, who was travelling to the United Kingdom, said the situation caused arriving flights use the open bay to disembark passengers.
“The entire terminal was in darkness from about 10:30pm and this occurred when passengers to various destinations were being processed and some were being checked in for boarding. This is the height of embarrassment to our country and it should not be allowed to continue,” she said.
An airport staff, who confirmed the embarrassing development, disclosed that the airport had endured an hour-long outage earlier in the day. This, he said, equally affected the process of getting passengers ready for check-in.
The staff reckoned that the second outage of the day may have occurred as a result of glitches on the national grid, as the entire airport environment was in darkness.
The source attributed the regularity of outage at the airport in recent times to overloading of cables, explaining that the number offices and equipment at the airport have recently increased in number, therefore outstripping power supply to the airport and cables.
The source put the blame for the regular outage on former Minister of Aviation, Senator Stella Oduah, whom she alleged awarded the contracts for the remodelling of the airport to contractors who used substandard cables.
Just last week, the arrival and departure halls of the airport witnessed a fire outbreak.
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