A MAN CLIMBING A MOVING PLANE ARRESTED AT LAGOS AIR PORT

Oyetunji Abioye

There was pandemonium at the airside of the Lagos airport on Friday as a yet-to-be-identified man mounted a moving Air Peace plane.

The man was later arrested by security officials after the pilot of a private jet coming behind the Air Peace plane informed them about the incident.

Airport sources could not immediately ascertain the reason for the man’s action.

Air Peace, however, said the man was a stowaway who thought the plane was heading overseas.

The airline in a statement said the suspect was being investigated.

The statement read in part, “At exactly 9:10am at the MMA1 Lagos, an Owerri-bound Air Peace aircraft was taxing towards the threshold for take-off when a man in his 20s emerged from the bush along the runway and tried to gain access to the aircraft through the wheel-well.

“There was a private jet behind the aircraft. The pilot-in-command of the private jet informed the Air Peace pilot-in-command that a young man, obviously in his 20s, was trying to force his way into the aircraft.

“The security wing of the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria was alerted and the man was accosted and whisked away. He is currently in the regulator’s custody. “When interrogated on why he took the action, the man stated that he thought the aircraft was heading overseas.”

However, the Police Public Relations Officer, Airport Command, Joseph Alabi, said the command was investigating the incident.

The General Manager, Public Affairs, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, Henrietta Yakubu, said initial efforts to stop the intruder by AVSEC personnel failed as the suspect continued to resist arrest.

“While the struggle was ongoing,  AVSEC personnel called for reinforcement and alerted the pilot of the plane of the intrusion, and to delay the aircraft to allow for a successful apprehension of the intruder,” a statement by the agency said.

“The intruder was eventually apprehended  by AVSEC personnel with the support of the reinforcement and has been taken into custody for investigations.”

The incident happened barely six months after a madman found his way to the Lagos airport and climbed a Port Harcourt-bound Azman Airlines plane.  The mentally ill man was later identified as Usman Adamu from the Republic of Niger.

The authorities said then that investigation was still ongoing to ascertain how Adamu gained access to the heavily restricted area of the airport.

According to a video shot by one of the Port Harcourt-bound passengers, Adamu was seen entering the fuselage of the aircraft with hand luggage and also climbing one of its wings.

He was later apprehended by  FAAN security officers.

Following the development, FAAN  suspended indefinitely the Aviation Security Unit heads on duty when the incident occurred.

Yakubu had in a statement said the agency viewed the breach as a serious security concern.

She said FAAN had begun investigation to ascertain the remote and immediate causes of the incident to forestall future occurrence.

The agency has yet to make public the report of its investigation.