The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has apologized to passengers and other airport users who witnessed a temporary power outage at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, on Friday.
FAAN in a statement by its Acting General Manager, Corporate Affairs, Mrs. Faithful A. Hope-Ivbaze said the outage was a result of Friday’s rain, which came with very fierce winds and storms.
“The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) wishes to apologize to passengers and other airport users that witnessed a temporary power outage at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, at about 2315hours yesterday, April 1, 2022.
The outage, which was as a result of yesterday’s rain, that came with very fierce winds and storms, a natural occurrence affected one of our feeders and consequently resulted in the temporary disruption of power supply at the D wing of the airport.
However, our engineers quickly discovered the fault, and liaised with the Ejigbo duty/area control office of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria and together resolved the problem. Normalcy has since been restored in the affected area” the statement said.
Recall that a video showing that the airport was thrown into darkness surfaced in the early hours of Saturday, April 2, 2022.
The affected part is believed to be the departure lounge where passengers were already gathered to board.
The shocked passengers can be heard in the video groaning under the darkness as airport officials try frantically to placate them.
A female voice believed to be one of the airport officials said, “Please bear with us. Group one and group two, please proceed for boarding.”
Another person requested that they put on a candle to light up the area, “On candle, on candle now,” he said, to which a woman replied, “Go and bring a candle.”
The passengers later resolved to use flashlights from their phones to light up the environment as they waited anxiously for power to be restored.
Meanwhile, as some aggrieved passengers continued to vent their displeasure, an apologetic official responded by saying, “I understand, whatever you say is allowed.”