Chinelo Obogo
A man has been arrested by security operatives at the airside of the Murtala Muhammed Airport 1 on Friday after mounting a moving Air Peace plane.
Security operatives were notified by the pilot of a private jet coming behind the Air Peace aircraft of the man’s activities and he was immediately arrested.
The management of Air Peace said the man was a stowaway who thought the plane was headed overseas.
The airline in a statement said the suspect was being held by the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) for further investigation.
Air Peace said: “This morning, at exactly 9:10 at the MMA1 Lagos, an Owerri-bound Air Peace aircraft was taxing towards the threshold for take-off, when a man, in his twenties, emerged from the bush along the runway and tried to gain access into 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 twenties, 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 headed overseas.”
The Police Public Relations Officer, Airport Command, Mr. Joseph Alabi, said the command was still investigating the incident.
The incidents of stowaways finding their way to the runway and gaining access to aircraft have been a regular occurrence.
Earlier this year, a mentally-challenged man, Usman Adamu, from the Republic of Niger, was seen entering the fuselage of the aircraft with hand luggage and at the local airport in Lagos and climbed a Port Harcourt-bound Azman Airlines plane.
The police said the man could not speak or understand the English language. The authorities said then that investigation was still ongoing to ascertain how Adamu gained access to the heavily-restricted area at the airport.
He was apprehended by Aviation Security Personnel of FAAN and taken to their detention facility before the case was transferred to the police for further investigation.
Following the development, FAAN placed on indefinite suspension on the Aviation Security Unit heads who were on duty when the incident occurred.