The deceased could not be identified as he lacked any proper form of identification as at the time he was found at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMAI), Lagos on Friday.
Sources close to the airline said that the stowaway might have got in from the undercarriage of the aircraft from the MMIA with the assistance of some security personnel and ground handling companies at the airport.
An officer of the airline, who confirmed the incident, said that the airline was still unable to identify the deceased.
He stated that proper identification of the deceased would be almost impossible as he had nothing that could be used to identify him, adding that his age could equally not be ascertained by the airline.
His words: “How can we identify somebody who was found dead at the undercarriage compartment of our aircraft? We can’t identify him because he had no any form of identity. Also, we can’t determine his age because we don’t know anything about it.”
He, however, said that appropriate authorities had been contacted.
It will be recalled that a young Nigerian was, on Friday, at MMIA, found dead in the wheel well of Arik Air’s A340-500 after it arrived from New York and was preparing for another flight out of the country.
Sources close to the airline said the deceased might have been in the undercarriage of the airline for days and was crushed to death while the flight was airborne to the JF Kennedy Airport, New York.
The airline’s sources said the dead body was found during a check on the aircraft panel.
The undercarriage compartment is where the aircraft tires are stored and it is big enough to accommodate a grown up human being.
However, aviation stakeholders say the persistent cases of stowing away persons at the nation’s airports, most especially at the MMIA indicate serious security breaches at the nation’s airports.
They declared that the airports, especially the airsides were supposed to be restricted areas, but declared that miscreants at the airports were sometimes found at the restricted areas.
They, however, said that this could only be possible with the connivance of security agents and ground handling personnel attached to the airport.
Only recently in the U.S, a Nigerian-American man pleaded guilty to stowing away on a commercial airline flight from New York to Los Angeles in an incident that revealed an apparent lapse in airport security.
Olajide Oluwaseun Noibi, 24, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles to one-count of stowing away on an aircraft. He currently faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
http://www.tribune.com.ng
No comments:
Post a Comment