22-year-old Igbo man sneak into London- bound flight

Security operatives at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, have commenced investigation into a security threat that occurred at the airport.

Africa Update gathered that a 22-year-old man from Nnewi in Anambra State stowed away in a spare compartment of Boeing B747 aircraft operated by Medview Airline, last Saturday and travelled to London from the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, and returned unharmed on Sunday.

Aviation experts stated that the unnamed man, who is currently in the custody of policemen attached to the airport police station, had survived the stunt because the compartment he sneaked into  is as pressurised as the aircraft cabin and it is close to the cockpit.

Emerging reports disclosed that nobody saw him accessing the aircraft, including the security officials paid by the airline to secure it; the aviation security officials of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and the police at the protocol area through which he sneaked to the tarmac of the terminal.

Security operatives who are confounded by the successful access of the stowaway to the aircraft have admitted that the Lagos airport and other airports in the country are porous and that if the stowaway were a suicide bomber, he would have destroyed the aircraft along with the passengers while airborne to London.

Sources said  that the stowaway confessed that he accessed the airport terminal through the protocol area that is usually manned by the police through the bush area between the Hajj/Cargo terminal and the international terminal.

“He said when he came near the aircraft, he watched the security personnel manning the aircraft and waited for him to look the other way before he sneaked into the aircraft. On arrival in London, he thought that the passengers would disembark and the aircraft would stay another night so that he could sneak out into the city, but when he saw that after the passengers who arrived from Lagos had disembarked and passengers travelling to Lagos had started boarding, he decided to stay back and that was how he came back to Lagos in the same spares compartment.

“On arrival, he was noticed because he started pushing the door of that compartment and airline officials who were surprised that the door was being pushed from inside went to open it. When they opened the compartment door they were surprised to see somebody there. They caught him and handed him over to the police.

Reacting to the incident, the sokesman of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Sam Adurogboye, and his counterpart at the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Mrs. Henrietta Yakubu, said the two agencies have commenced  investigation.