At least six people sustained injuries and major international carriers including British Airways, Lufthansa, and Emirates were forced to divert their flights on Monday following a sudden fire at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos.
The Managing Director and CEO of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, Mrs. Olubunmi Kuku, confirmed these details during a press briefing following the incident on Monday evening.
Addressing the flight disruptions, Mrs. Kuku explained the current situation for those with relatives on the affected flights.
“And so, if you have any friends or family on those three flights, British Airways was diverted to Abuja while Lufthansa to Malabo and, of course, the Emirates flight.
“However, for travelling passengers, please note that in the next half an hour, our operations will be back up and running. So it’s okay to come into the airport if you have flight operations in the next couple of hours or in the next couple of days,” she stated.
She further clarified that most operations had already been shifted to accommodate the emergency.
“Most of our departures and even arrivals have already moved. Most of the departures moved into Terminal 2. We do have four airlines that were planned to move into the temporary terminal. The temporary terminal is ready,” she added.
Regarding the origin of the blaze and its potential connection to ongoing construction work, Kuku noted that while renovations are occurring within the premises, the specific area of origin was not an active work site at the time.
“But within the area where we believe the fire started from, there was nothing happening at that time.
“Rather, what we did was to have people who were sort of moving things out, because you do know that there’s a major renovation coming up. There is renovation activities that are happening within the airport premises, yes,” she said.
The fire, which broke out on the fourth and fifth floors of Terminal One, caused widespread panic and triggered a massive emergency response earlier in the day.
While fire and rescue officials worked to contain the flames, aircraft approaching the city were held in holding patterns until the runway and terminal areas were cleared for safe arrival and the situation was brought under control.
