Power outage at Abuja airport causes panic on BA flight
An official of British Airways in Abuja who was on duty at the airport when the incident occurred told Sunday Trust explained the incident thus: “At about 5.00am, while our aircraft arriving from London arrived Abuja airport, there was a sudden power outage. We contacted officials of Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), but they […]
An official of British Airways in Abuja who was on duty at the airport when the incident occurred told Sunday Trust explained the incident thus: “At about 5.00am, while our aircraft arriving from London arrived Abuja airport, there was a sudden power outage. We contacted officials of Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), but they could not fix the problem. It took about one hour twenty minutes to fix the problem. The worsen the situation, the airport’s standby generator was faulty. It could not be switched on.”
He said that as a result of the outage, the passengers were prevented from disembarking into the darkness. The British Airways officials insisted that they must remain in the aircraft until electricity was restored.
The official said the Federal Aviation Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) were aware of the incident, but that the airline would write an official letter to FAAN to formally complain about the unstable power situation at the airport.
The spokesman for FAAN Mr Akin Olukunle confirmed the incident in a chat with Sunday Trust. He explained that the technical failure occurred shortly after BA landed at the airport and power went out.
He said though the electricity line supplying power to the runway was functional, the terminal building was in darkness, a situation which kept the passengers in the aircraft for well over an hour.
Mr Olukunle, however, noted that, it took the engineers over one hour to restore power at the airport.
He attributed the regular power failure at the airport to the rehabilitation project at the airport, adding that in less than two months from now, the renovation would have been completed and regular power supply would be restored at the airport.