Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos, on fire (Update)

The E-Arrival wing of Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Lagos, Nigeria, has been engulfed in an inferno.

Diaspora Digital Media (DDM) gathered that the fire outbreak threw the airport into power outage.

The outbreak happened days after maintenance claims at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport.

The incident took place barely a week after it was announced that Nigeria’s Aviation Minister, Barr. Festus Keyamo, was supervising the maintenance of facilities in the E-Wing of the Airport in Lagos.

Pandemonium broke out on Thursday as fire raged at the E-Arrival area of the old terminal of the country’s busiest airport.

Airport staff and passengers at the facility were immediately evacuated from the affected axis by spirited security and safety staff.

While the fire has since been put out, fire fighters remain on ground with their equipment to forestall possible reoccurrence.

The area of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport has now also been cordoned off.

What caused the fire at Murtala Mohammed International Airport?

The cause of the fire has not been revealed as at the time of filing this report, but speculations have it that it could be due to aging and dilapidated infrastructure.

Dearth of facilities have over the years impeded the airport from achieving its potentials.

45-year-old Murtala Mohammed International Airport has reportedly been gasping for survival amid poor infrastructure including expired fire extinguishers.

Other deficiencies include inadequate safety staff/ equipment, inadequate checking-in counters and inadequate or unserviceable passengers screening machines.

Others are inadequate aircraft boarding gates, inadequate ground handling equipment or facilities, and absence of taxiways or sufficient links from aprons to runways, among others.

A syndicated story from the media unit of the office of the Aviation Minister, had in the past week claimed that “the E-wings of the airport have been thoroughly cleaned with due diligence and attention to details including a facelift.”

“Earlier, Festus Keyamo, already set for himself the vision to repositioning the aviation sector through revenue generation and growth.

“The human right activist turned Minister target includes ensuring strict compliance with national laws, regulations and international obligations; improvement and development of infrastructure for passenger convenience; support for the growth and sustenance of local airline businesses; human capacity development and optimization and many more,” the report added.

Brief history and overview of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport

Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) (IATA: LOS, ICAO: DNMM) is an international airport located in Ikeja, Lagos State, Nigeria.

It serves as the major airport for the entire state of Lagos.

The airport was initially built during World War II and is named after Murtala Muhammed (1938–1976), the fourth military ruler of Nigeria.

History:

The airport was originally known as Lagos Airport.

It was, however, renamed after Murtala Muhammed in 1976 following his assassination during a failed coup attempt.

A new international terminal, modeled after Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, was constructed in the late 1970s.

The move was to ensure sufficient capacity through the year 2000.

Facilities:

Murtala Muhammed International Airport consists of an international terminal and a domestic terminal, located about one kilometer from each other.

Both terminals share the same runways.

The domestic terminal used to be the old Ikeja Airport, while international operations moved to the new international airport when it was ready.

Airlines:

It serves as the main base for Nigeria’s largest airline, Air Peace, as well as several other Nigerian airlines.

Runways:

18R/36L: Length of 3,900 meters (12,794 feet), surfaced with asphalt.

18L/36R: Length of 2,743 meters (8,999 feet), also surfaced with asphalt.

Location:

The Murtala Mohammed International Airport is situated in Ikeja, approximately 12 kilometers (14 miles) northwest of downtown Lagos and 50 kilometers from Lekki, serving both cities.

For Diaspora Digital Media Updates click on Whatsapp, or Telegram. For eyewitness accounts/ reports/ articles, write to: citizenreports@diasporadigitalmedia.com. Follow us on X (Fomerly Twitter) or Facebook