Thousands of travellers have been stranded in Lagos, Nigeria after the Monday fire incident that allegedly destroyed some navigational equipment at the Muritala Mohammed International Airport.
NPO Reports visit to the International wing of the airport on Tuesday showed that many airlines are facing a hellish time sorting out backlogs of cancelled flights.
The situation has degenerated to tensions with hundreds in very precarious situations.
Passengers on flights such as the British Airways, KLM and others have had their flights shifted with backlogs causing serious delays in processing the documents of many others.
It was gathered that airline officials told highly agitated travellers that most of the equipment for speedy processing of travellers’ details were damaged and that many aspects of the processings were being done manually.
As at 6pm on Tuesday, the departure hall of the airport was filled to the brim as anxious passengers made efforts to get cleared for their flights while airline officials struggled to cope with the confusion.
NPO Reports gathered that many flights that were expected to have taken off late Tuesday evening were again shifted with no clear time they would depart.
A passenger on KLM flight to London who spoke with the NPO Reports correspondent on condition of anonimity said they were being informed that their flight slated for 11pm Tuesday would not take off as scheduled.
At about 4am Wednesday, the passenger said they were being moved to a hotel along the Airport Road where they would be informed later in the day the next scheduled time for their flight.
“I am stressed. I stood at the airport since arriving their for checking in procedures at about 5:30pm yesterday. Now at a hotel where we have been moved to. It is stressful. The worst part here is that the airline cannot even tell us when exactly we are billed to move. They said their equipment was damaged by fire,” the passenger said.
NPO Reports that the Minister of Aviation, Festus Keyamo, had confirmed that flights were being affected as a result of the damages to equipment after fire gutted the Nigerian Meteorological Agency NimeT.
“Our NiMET office where they read the weather is totally gone. I am sure you saw most of the air traffic controllers who were trapped up there yesterday and had to be rescued by a crane.
“So, some of our equipment is damaged, but mostly like I said for the building itself, we were about to pull down the building anyway,” he said.