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Mangled corpse found at Lagos Airport Runway; suspected to be stowaway.

Reports also suggest that the body might have dropped from the aircraft in the night of Wednesday, May 18, 2022, and was being crushed by the many aircraft that landed and took off that night.
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THE Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has reported that a mangled body was found on the international runway of the Murtala Muhammed Airport Lagos on Thursday, May 19, 2022, adding that the body might be  that of a stowaway that fell off the wheel-well of an aircraft that was taxiing to take off.

The incident was confirmed in a statement, signed by FAAN's spokesperson, Mrs Faithful Hope-Ivbaze, who said, “The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria wishes to inform the general public of an incident in which an unidentified human remains were found on Runway 18R/36L on Thursday, May 19, 2022.

“A motorised cleaner, who was cleared to carry out a derruberisation and sweeping of the runway discovered the remains at about 01:06 hours, and escalated the situation to relevant departments.

“As a result, between 01:10 (1:10 am) and 03:43 (3:43 am) hours, the runway was temporarily closed to allow for immediate evacuation of the remains. Flight operations resumed at 03:43 hours.”

Other information states that the Aviation Security (AVSEC), the Nigerian Police, the Department of State Service (DSS), and the Nigerian Air Force jointly took the body for further investigation and were working on the suspicion that the body was that of a stowaway.

Reports also suggest that the body might have dropped from the aircraft in the night of Wednesday, May 18, 2022, and was being crushed by the many aircraft that landed and took off that night.

FAAN also insisted that the runway was only closed for the aforementioned period but there was no flight diversion because during that time most flights have taken off to their destinations.

“We read the report that flights were diverted but that was not true. You know that there is very light traffic on that runway in the morning, so we just closed it to enable us remove the body and wash the place.

“Our first suspicion is that it might be a stowaway, but the security operatives will confirm that and get back to us,” the FAAN official said.

A police officer abreast of the incident disclosed that a phone was found in the trousers pocket of the deceased but subscriber identity module (sim) card was not in it, but there was a memory card in the phone.