Hundreds of Americans scheduled to be evacuated from Lagos on Friday were stranded at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport,(MMIA) Lagos due to crew illegality.
The evacuation flight which was supposed to be operated by Omni Air International with aircraft type B767-200 was cancelled.
A letter dated April 3, 2020 issued by Landover Aviation Services, signed by Adegbola Adediran, Flight Operations and made available to Businessday titled ‘Flight Cancellation’ was sent to Comptroller of Immigration MMIA and United States Embassy Abuja.
The latter reads, “The operator has advised while aircraft was enroute, that aircraft was forced to return back due to crew illegality issues without further details.
“We hereby request that all passengers already checked in and stamped out be stamped back,” the letter stated.
The US nationals who had already been check-in by the airport authorities were seen collecting their baggage from arrival baggage belts with the plan to go back home.
The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, (NCAA) had earlier banned international flights but confirmed essential flights will still operate.
The essential flights include aircraft in state of emergency, over flights, operations related to humanitarian aid, medical and relief flights, alternate aerodrome identified in the flight plan, technical stop where passengers do not disembark, cargo flights and other safety related operations.
A total of 637 French and German citizens were on Thursday evacuated from Nigeria through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos by their governments.
Air France’s A330 airplane which was the first to land departed at 13.56hr while Lufthansa German Airline departed with her nationals at 15.46hr.
IFEOMA OKEKE
Ifeoma Okeke-Korieocha
Ifeoma Okeke-Korieocha is the Aviation Correspondent at BusinessDay Media Limited, publishers of BusinessDay Newspapers.
She is also the Deputy Editor, BusinessDay Weekender Magazine, the Saturday Weekend edition of BusinessDay.
She holds a BSC in Mass Communication from the prestigious University of Nigeria, Nsukka and a Masters degree in Marketing at the University of Lagos.
As the lead writer on the aviation desk, Ifeoma is responsible and in charge of the three weekly aviation and travel pages in BusinessDay and BDSunday. She also overseas and edits all pages of BusinessDay Saturday Weekender.
She has written various investigative, features and news stories in aviation and business related issues and has been severally nominated for award in the category of Aviation Writer of the Year by the Nigeria Media Nite-Out awards; one of the Nigeria’s most prestigious media awards ceremonies.
Ifeoma is a one-time winner of the
prestigious Nigeria Media Merit Award under the 'Aviation Writer of the Year' Category.
She is the 2025 Eloy Award winner under the Print Media Journalist category.
She has undergone several journalism trainings by various prestigious organisations.
Ifeoma is also a fellow of the Female Reporters Leadership Fellowship of the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism.
