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Nigeria Closes Down Lagos Airport for Runway Repairs

Posted on: Sunday, 6 November 2005, 09:00 CST

Nigeria closes down Lagos airport for runway repairs

LAGOS, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Nigeria on Saturday ordered a temporary closure of the only functioning runway in Lagos, the west Africa state's commercial capital, for maintenance, days after a passenger aircraft carrying 20 people skipped off the flooded tarmac during landing.

"It was closed today for major repairs and will re-open at 4 p. m. (1500 GMT) tomorrow," Sam Adurogboye, a spokesman for the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority told Xinhua.

There are two runways at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, the major gateway to Nigeria and other west African states, but one of them, runway 18R, has already been shut since October 2004 for resurfacing, Adurogboye said.

This caused pressures on the sole functional one, runway 18L, which now is also scarred with potholes and is easily waterlogged. In July, the authorities temporarily shut it for the first time for repairs after a Lufthansa aircraft run into a pothole on this particular runway.

Similar incidents of aircraft skidding off runway 18L and running into pools of water had occurred repeatedly this year and the latest happened on Tuesday involving an airliner with 17 passengers and three crew members, which was operated by local Associated Airlines.

These incidents, as well as a Bellview Airlines plane crash in the country two weeks ago that killed all 117 on board, raised concerns about air safety in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country.

The cause of the air crash on October 22 was still not known.

Source: Xinhua News Agency - CEIS

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