News: Four arriving passengers from the U.S.A collapse at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport

There was pandemonium at the Muritala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) Lagos, yesterday evening when four passengers who arrived the city from Atlanta in the United States of America, collapsed due to excessive heat at the arrival hall of the airport terminal.

According to Leadership Newspaper, the passengers, who had arrived aboard Delta Airline, were waiting for baggage reclaim when the 4 who had just arrived from the US where the temperature is much cooler, got overwhelmed by the heat in the arrival area and collapsed.

A source close to the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) told LEADERSHIP Weekend that the cooling system at the airport was not working when the incident happened and that it might be due to the current remodelling of the airport.

It was learnt that two of the passengers were rushed to an undisclosed hospital in an ambulance belonging to the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN)

In his reaction to the development, the general manager, public affairs of FAAN, Yakubu Dati, said the situation was exaggerated by online reports.
Another FAAN official contacted who preferred anonymity said the unhealthy situation at the arrival hall of the airport was not new to most air travellers who had had to contend with it as they passed through immigration and baggage collection.

For those coming from Europe it is like coming from an extremely cold environment to an extremely hot environment and passengers have to sweat it out as they go through immigration formalities and then through the tortuous collection of their in luggage,” he said.