Abuja: Safety Threat as Hole at Airport Runway Forces Airline to Drop Passengers

• German airline, Lufthansa, on Wednesday, July 23, offloaded 45 passengers and the luggage of about 200 fully booked travelers from its Abuja-Frankfurt flight due to runway safety concerns at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport
• Legit.ng gathered that authorities from the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) subsequently cordoned off that section, drastically reducing the available runway length for departing aircraft
• As a result, Lufthansa’s Airbus A330-300, a wide-body jet that typically requires a longer takeoff roll due to its weight and size, was unable to accelerate safely using the shortened stretch of runway

Legit.ng journalist Ridwan Adeola Yusuf has over 9 years of experience covering public affairs in Nigeria.

FCT, Abuja - Lufthansa Airline on Wednesday, July 23, offloaded 45 passengers and all the luggage of about 200 passengers fully booked for the Abuja-Frankfurt flight.

As reported by This Day on Friday, July 25, the German carrier took this decision to reduce the weight of the aircraft so that it could take off from a shorter length of the runway.

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Major hole in Abuja runway

Arise News noted that this was because a big hole developed at one end of the 3, 610 meters (20 kilometer) runway, which forced the management of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) to cordon off that part, thus limiting aircraft from building thrust through the normal runway distance, but to take off after taxing from the usable part of the facility.

Apart from the major hole in the runway, there are several serious cracks and bumps.

Lufthansa which operated Airbus A330-300 with capacity for 250-290 seats is a double isle aircraft that needed to taxi for a longer distance before taking off.

In order to operate safely, using the safe distance of the runway, the pilot of the aircraft had to offload some passengers and luggage to reduce the aircraft weight and enable it to lift after a short distance of taxiing.

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Abuja airport runway challenge

One of the passengers who spoke on the condition of anonymity, disclosed that the passengers who were dropped were taken to Abuja Continental Hotel, Abuja by the airline by about 4.00 am the following morning and that his flight was now rescheduled to take off on Sunday, July 27, which is four days after he was scheduled to travel back to Germany.

The passenger said:

“The incident was really saddening because I have not been in Nigeria for eight years and I faced this problem on my way back to Germany."

Snapshot of Lufthansa Airline

Lufthansa Airline offers approximately five weekly flights from Abuja to Frankfurt, Germany.

Lufthansa ranks second in Europe by passengers carried, as well as largest in Europe and fourth largest in the world by revenue. Lufthansa was founded in 1953 and commenced operations in April 1955.

Besides operating flights under its own brand Lufthansa Airlines, the Lufthansa Group also owns several other airlines, including Brussels Airlines, Discover Airlines, Austrian Airlines, Eurowings, ITA Airways and Swiss International Air Lines. The group also owns several aviation-related companies, including Global Load Control, Lufthansa Consulting, Lufthansa Flight Training, Lufthansa Systems and Lufthansa Technik.

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Aircraft crash-lands at Ilorin Airport

Earlier, Legit.ng reported that a diamond training aircraft operated by the Aviation Training School in Ilorin, the Kwara state capital crash-landed at the Ilorin International Airport.

Two persons were hospitalised in the unfortunate incident.

The incident occurred during a simulated instrument approach on Runway 05 at the airport.

Proofreading by Funmilayo Aremu, copy editor at Legit.ng.

Source: Legit.ng