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By Akinwande Soji-Ojo
The international wing of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) in Lagos was temporarily shut on Thursday after the mangled body of a dead man was found on Runway 18R of the nation’s flagship airport.
The identity of the corpse could not be ascertained and it could not be established whether the dead man was knocked down by an aircraft taking off or landing on the runway.
According to reports, the runway was temporarily shut down while a team of officials from the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and the Nigeria Police Force evacuated the corpse from the runway.
During the temporary shutdown of the runway, flights were prevented from landing and taking off from the airport’s international terminal.
Among the flights that could not land due to the shutdown was an Ethiopian Airlines flight 3907, a Boeing 77F aircraft with registration number ETAVN, which was coming from Lome, Togo.
The flight was later diverted back to Lome after holding for a while.
Airport officials said the corpse was suddenly found on Runway 18R during a routine runway inspection by FAAN personnel, The PUNCH reports.
The officials were said to have reported a corpse on the runway around the cargo area.
A top police official at the MMIA confirmed the development.
He said the command was called upon in the early hours of Thursday to evacuate the corpse from Runway 18R.
According to him, the police are still investigating the identity of the dead man and how he got to the security area of the international airport.