Temporary power outage hits Murtala Muhammed International Airport

[emezico]

Flight and business activities were temporarily paralysed at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport on Wednesday following a sudden power outage.

As a result of this, offices, shops and banks could not function.

Air traffic controllers were said to have used manual approach to control aircraft movements as the outage temporarily affected the equipment.

There was heavy congestion on ground and in the air as air clearance and separation of flights for domestic and international flights were carried out manually making the job slower and cumbersome.

However, an official of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) who was contacted for reaction denied the power outage saying, "there has been light all day."

An official of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA)  who also spoke on the issue did not confirm or deny the power outage but explained that there were two generators manning the system adding that they did not pack up at the same time.

According to the NAMA official, "we have one 500 KVA and another 350 KVA. The engineers are working on one, the other one is working well now, the backup is also there for such times. There is no way flights can be affected."

When the Nigerian Tribune visited the airport between 4.00p.m and 5.00p.m, normalcy had returned with flight operations back to normal.