Due to an early outbreak of thick smoke and a subsequent fire near the E54 passenger bridge on the international airport’s E wing axis, confusion prevailed the Murtala Muhammed Airport for a considerable amount of time on Thursday morning.
This development necessitated a diversion of all flight operations to the airport terminal’s D Wing so that firefighters could contain the out-of-control situation.
Although the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) firefighters managed to bring the situation under control after a fierce struggle, the incident instilled fear in the passengers using the airport.
Confirming this in a statement sighted by GTN, the Director of Public Affairs and consumer protection at FAAN, Mrs Obiageli Orah, FAAN said, smoke was detected at 05.29 hours from the E54 bridge of the airport leading the electrical engineers immediately cutting off power supply to the entire E wing of the airport.
According to the statement:”The airport rescue and fire fighting services team was quick to respond arriving at the scene by o4.30hoirs.
“Initial suspicions point to sparks from an electrical unit as the cause, but a thorough investigation is ongoing to ascertain the cause of the fire.
“The incident which had escalated into a fire was brought under control by 06.49hrs. Efforts to ventilate the smoke from the building are in progress.
“Meanwhile, all flight operations in Terminal one have been diverted to the D wing terminal of the airport.”
