Minister of Aviation on behalf of the federal government have given reasons why air passengers at the Murtala Muhammed
Airport, were being given a serious scare on Saturday after the airport’s departure hall vibrated.
The Minister of State for Aviation, Sen. Hadi Sirika, confirmed Saturday’s early morning
vibration at the terminal building of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.
Recall that we had reported that a massive vibration, occurred at a portion of the departure hall of the terminal and disrupted
the processing of some passengers as early as 2 a.m. on Saturday.
Mostly affected by the vibration were counters 37 to 41, which forced Royal Air Maroc to move its passengers’ processing to
another part of the terminal that was not affected by the vibration, which lasted for several hours.
In a statement signed by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) Acting
General Manager of Corporate
Communications, Henrietta Yakubu, the Aviation Minister explained that the vibration came from the air handling room
of the cooling system.
He refuted claims that the vibration was caused by an earthquake, as some media
had reported, or structural problems.
The doors of the cooling system, Sirika said, were unlatched, causing the vibration to be
felt by the nearby Royal Air Maroc office and passengers in the room’s vicinity.
He said; “Well, first and foremost, 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 is that there were vibrations at the air handling room of the cooling system. This door is a huge metal
door that needs to be locked properly, and while it was locked, it wasn’t latched properly…that gave rise to the vibration
because there are moving parts, there are motors and fans and other things that are activated and they function the motion 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 they assumed the structure was vibrating to the
point of collapse.
“Once our men were alerted, they went promptly, identified the problem, which was the door, and latched the door and since
then there has been quiet.”
The minister further disclosed that the engineering department was working on the chillers too, stressing that soon the
airport would be cooled and comfortable for air travelers.
On the issue of the power outage that was reported, Sirika confirmed that there was a
power outage but said that critical parts of the airport were powered by generators, allowing the airport’s operations to run as
planned.
He said; “Indeed there was a power outage at the airport. However, we have dedicated
generators to certain areas of the airport and those generators were working at the time we lost the power. The airfield lighting
and taxiways were all working perfectly and most parts of the operational aspects of the
airport, including the checking-in counter, were working perfectly.
“The terminal building where passengers found themselves were affected, but the
outage did not get to the critical safety operations of the airport,” adding that power has since been restored.
“Things like this there are unforeseen; power surges are things we cannot predict,
but we check that and prevent the surge from affecting us, but it depends on the
surge.”
