The Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos on Sunday
experienced vibrations, which left many passengers terrified.
The vibrations were said to have occurred at about 3am and
people present at the airport at the time attributed the incident to tremors.
The Minister of State for Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika,
however, said the vibrations were not in any way a structural issue or an
earthquake but the result of unlatched doors where the coolers, which had just
been put into use, were housed.
The minister, who came in from Abuja on Sunday evening, said
the rumour that the vibrations had affected the structural integrity of the
airport was untrue and misleading.
Sirika was quoted in a statement issued by the Acting
General Manager, Corporate Affairs, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, Mrs.
Henrietta Yakubu, as saying that the doors were not well-latched and the
vibrations were directly under the counter of Royal Air Maroc, which led to the
assumption that something had gone wrong.
The minister said, “It is wrong and erroneous to say that
the structure of the Murtala Muhammed Airport is failing and there was an
earthquake as reported by some sections of the media; it is not so.
What
happened was that there were vibrations at the air handling room of the cooling
system; this door is a huge metal door that needed to be locked properly; it
was locked but wasn’t latched properly; the latches were not in place and that
gave rise to the vibrations because there are moving parts within the system.
“There are motors and fans and other things activated to
create the necessary cooling system. That door responded to the vibration and
because it wasn’t latched, it was vibrating and that vibration was directly
under the counter of Royal Air Maroc and people assumed the structure was
vibrating to the point of collapse.”
He said airport officials were alerted and the door was
latched after it was discovered.
The minister said that the engineering department was also
working on the chillers to make passengers more comfortable.
By Maureen Ihua-Maduenyi
