Another Air Mishap Averted …Due to Runway Light Outage

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Huhuonline.com can disclose that another air mishap was narrowly averted at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport, Abuja, Friday, when the run way lights went off, thus making it impossible for planes to either take off or land. Consequently all planes scheduled to land

in Abuja have been re-routed to Lagos. Specifically, Lufthansa flight that took off from Abuja to Malabo, earlier in the day was routed to Lagos. Also, an Air France and British airways were rerouted, thus leaving many passengers stranded.

Effort to reach Stella Ogiewonyi, Nigeria's aviation minister were unsucceful, several phone calls placed to her, rang unanswered. Neither did she acknowledge or respond to   ourtext messages. Normal.dotm 0 0 1 100 575 huhuonline 4 1 706 12.0 0 false 18 pt 18 pt 0 0 false false false

However, after press time, One Victor Elias, who identified himself as the technical assistant to the minister of aviation, contacted huhuonline.com to explain the reason for the flight cancellations

Hear him:
'We are trying to correct the rot we met here, since the airport was built the runway lights have not been replaced."

"We had awarded contract to Julius Berger to refurbish the run lights, we had expected them to complete the job at about 5pm. But when we discovered that they could not finish the job, we rerouted the planes to Lagos, and we went on AIT to announce the flight cancellations."

Asked about the stranded passengers, Mr. Elias, said ,"they will be given hotel accommodation." Contacted, the some of stranded passengers confirmed they had been given hotel accommodation at the Sheraton and Hilton respectively.