An unidentified passenger passed on Monday three hours to landing aboard Delta Airline flight to Lagos from Atlanta, US.
A source close to the airline who craved anonymity told BusinessDay that the deceased had a terminal disease and wished to come back to Nigeria, his home land, to spend the rest of his life.
According to the source, “The deceased had a certificate from a hospital in the United States of a serious terminal disease, indicating that he may soon pass on. So, the deceased decided to come back to his home land to spend the rest of his life, knowing the complexities and costs it will take bringing back his corpse, in case he doesn’t survive the illness.”
The source explained further that Delta Airlines did the man a favour by bringing him home, adding that it was just to help him.
However, Rose Moses, an acquaintance to one of the passengers onboard complained on Facebook that she had waited for two hours at the car park of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Lagos, wondering why passengers aboard Delta Airlines flight from Atlanta to Lagos, which touched down over two hours ago were yet to be out of the airport.
Moses said after placing calls to the person she was waiting for, she was told one of the passengers died three hours to landing aboard the flight and therefore, all passengers were asked to remain seated until the body was evacuated.
“I also learnt of another Nigeria on a flight from the US to Nigeria last week that also died in another flight while also returning from US to Nigeria,” she said.
She recounted an experience of a friend couple years back while waiting for the daughter got message afterwards that their flight made a return, as a matter of policy, after several hours of flying because a passenger died on during the flight.
However, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) said no report of such had come to them as at the time of filing this report.
Nonetheless, Henrietta Yakubu, general manager, public affairs, FAAN, said the authority would investigate the issue as soon as possible.
