Dead body blocks airport's runway in Nigeria, flights diverted

A dead body was found on the runway of the international wing of Nigeria’s Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos, causing its temporary closure and the diversion of flights

Reports say the incident happened in the early hours of Thursday, May 19.

According to The Punch, the mangled body of a dead man was found on Runway 18R of the airport.

It was not immediately clear whether the dead man was knocked down by an aircraft taking off or landing on the runway.

A team of officials from the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and the Nigeria Police Force evacuated the corpse from the runway.

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The incident forced a Lagos-bound Ethiopian Airlines flight 3907, a Boeing 77F aircraft with registration number ETAVN, to return to Lome, Togo, where it took off from.

Airport officials said the corpse was suddenly found on Runway 18R during a routine runway inspection by FAAN personnel around the cargo area.

Last year, the tyres of a KLM flight had to be deflated in a bid to remove a bird that found its way into the engine compartment of the airplane at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) minutes before take-off.

KLM had to cancel its September 3 flight from Accra to Amsterdam as a result of the bird strike.

Personnel of the Ghana National Fire Service rushed to the scene to remedy the situation while passengers who remained onboard were left stranded and in fear.

Passengers disembarked and checked into hotels to spend the night while the airline made efforts to replace the deflated tyres of the plane.

A bird strike is strictly defined as a collision between a bird and an aircraft that is in flight or on a take-off or landing roll.

The term is often expanded to cover other wildlife strikes – with bats or ground animals.

Bird Strike is common and can be a significant threat to aircraft safety.

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