A lifeless body of a stowaway was on Wednesday, November 30, 2016 found in the main wheel well of one of Arik A330-200 aircrafts at the Oliver Tambo International Airport, Johannesburg.
The airplane operated the Lagos-Johannesburg schedule flight that departed Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) at 3:55pm on Tuesday, November 29, 2016 and arrived Johannesburg shortly before 11pm.
Engineers of South African Airways (SAA) Technical facility at the Oliver Tambo International Airport where the aircraft was scheduled for a routine maintenance check discovered the body of the stowaway during inspection phase.
Confirming the incident, the airline in an official statement, signed by the Public Relations & Communications Manager, Adebanji Ola stated that investigations are ongoing to determine how the stowaway found his way into the aircraft’s main wheel well.
Arik Air, a domestic carrier is Nigeria and West Africa’s largest airline and operates mainly from two hubs at Murtala Mohammed Airport Lagos and Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Abuja.
It operates a fleet of 28 state-of-the art regional, medium haul and long haul aircraft including two Airbus A330-200.
The airline currently serves 18 destinations across Nigeria as well as Accra (Ghana), Banjul (Gambia), Dakar (Senegal), Freetown (Sierra Leone), Monrovia (Liberia) and Cotonou (Benin Republic).
Others are Abidjan (Cote d’Ivoire), Douala (Cameroon), Luanda (Angola), Libreville (Gabon), London Heathrow (UK), Johannesburg (South Africa) and New York JFK (USA).
The airline operates a combined number of about 120 daily flights from its hubs in Lagos and Abuja, and has been Africa’s fastest growing airline in the last five years. (NAN)
