There was pandemonium at the Muritala Muhammed International Airport
(MMIA) Lagos, yesterday evening when four passengers who arrived the
city from Atlanta in the United States of America, collapsed due to
excessive heat at the arrival hall of the airport terminal.
According to Leadership Newspaper, the passengers, who had arrived in
Nigeria aboard Delta Airline from US, were waiting for baggage reclaim
but the 4 who had just arrived from the United States of America where
the temperature is much cooler, got overwhelmed by the heat in the
arrival area and collapsed.
A source close to the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) told
LEADERSHIP Weekend that the cooling system at the airport was not
working when the incident happened and that it might be due to the
current remodelling of the airport.
It was learnt that two of the passengers were rushed to an undisclosed
hospital in an ambulance belonging to the Federal Airport Authority of
Nigeria (FAAN)
In his reaction to the development, the general manager, public affairs
of FAAN, Yakubu Dati, said the situation was exaggerated by online
reports.
Another FAAN official contacted who preferred anonymity said the
unhealthy situation at the arrival hall of the airport was not new to
most air travellers who had had to contend with it as they passed
through immigration and baggage collection.
“For those coming from Europe it is like coming from an extremely cold
environment to an extremely hot environment and passengers have to sweat
it out as they go through immigration formalities and then through the
tortuous collection of their in luggage,” he said.
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