Posted by By Tunji Oketunbi, Assist. Aviation Editor on
Passengers were yesterday stranded at the domestic wing of Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos, as air traffic clearance at the airport entered into slow motion.
Passengers were yesterday stranded at the domestic wing of Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos, as air traffic clearance at the airport entered into slow motion.
Sources at the airport said the slow traffic was due to the Sunday incident in which an aircraft belonging to Chanchangi Airlines skidded off the runway after landing on a water-logged runway.
The disabled aircraft was still lying at the end of the only runway serving the airport as at last night, making it difficult for Air Traffic controllers to clear pilots for landing and take off.
The same incident slowed traffic on Sunday, affecting some international flights.
Domestic flights were delayed for several hours as aircraft queued up for clearance to take off and land.
Passengers, exhausted from hours of sitting inside aircraft on stand-by, had to disembark and were seeing sitting on the tarmac.
An EAS flight scheduled for 2.30pm was still on ground by 7pm while it was feared that others, such as IRS flight scheduled for 6 pm might not leave until very late.
Aviation Minister Mallam Yuguda on Sunday suspended two pilots of EAS and Chachangi for breach of safety rules.
The minister has however come under criticism by aviation experts who said the pre-empted investigations and shifted attention from the failure of Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) to provide good drainage on its runways.