Blackout At Abuja Airport Leaves Passengers Stranded

ABUJA, June 08, (THEWILL) – Less than a week after a fatal air crash that resulted in the death of more than 160 people, the Nigerian aviation sector on Friday evening again left huge questions over its safety, after runway lights at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport went off, stalling the landing or taking off of planes. All planes scheduled to touch down in Abuja were, as a result, re-routed to Lagos, in a move that is sure to irk the helpless passengers.

Notably, a Malabo-Abuja Lufthansa flight was routed to Lagos, same as Air France and British Airways flights, stranding hordes of passengers, who were reportedly offered accommodation for the night in Lagos.

Blackouts at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport have become commonplace, as there have been at least three such incidences this year alone.

In February, a British Airways flight from London landed at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja in darkness, and it was reported to the minister for power, Professor Barth Nnaji by the minister for agriculture, Akinwunmi Adesina, who was on the flight.

There was a similar occurrence the following month, with authorities failing to fully convince passengers on whether the blackouts were due to outage of power from the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) or from generator malfunctioning or internal faults with the airport’s lighting system.