Passenger scare at MMIA over ‘minor fire outbreak’

Authorities of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) on Thursday contained a fire outbreak at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), but that was after confused passengers ran helter-skelter for their safety.

TheCable gathered that the incident occurred at the departures hall of the international terminal at about 11: 50 am.

The fire was reportedly put out within a short period.

Musa Abdulrahman, FAAN’s head of electrical engineering department at the airport attributed the incident to an electrical short circuit, adding that the situation was immediately brought under control.

Confirming the development, Yakubu Dati, FAAN’s general manager, corporate communications, told TheCable that the incident did not disrupt operations at the airport.

“It was a minor electrical fault that generated smoke but everything is now under control,” he said.

“It didn’t even take 15 minutes to put out the fire and it did not interrupt any operations in the airport.”

However, an officer of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), who works at the airport, told TheCable on the condition of anonymity that the incident created slight scare among passengers.

“People would not have even known about the incident,” he said.

“Some of the passengers on queue scampered in different directions out of fear. But those of us working at the airport already knew what was going on.”

He also confirmed that normalcy had been restored.