The teenager, Daniel Ihekina, who beat airline and airport security on Saturday to fly on an Arik Air flight from Benin Airport to the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos has been handed over to the State Security Service (SSS) for further interrogation and investigation.
The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), general manager, corporate communications, Yakubu Dati, confirmed this to our correspondent yesterday, adding that the airport authority has following the incident in Benin “adopted risk amelioration processes to safeguard flight operations.”
“As a result of this incident in Benin, we have further tightened our risk amelioration procedure to ensure that a similar incident does not occur”, he added.
The teenager had managed to hide under the tyre compartment of the aircraft for the about 30 minute’s flight from Benin to Lagos on Saturday morning.
On the breach of airport security, he said FAAN was dismayed over its indictment by Arik Air, adding that “FAAN was unfairly indicted while the airline took no responsibility whatsoever for such a serious security breach”.
He said, “Our investigations reveal that a passenger on board the flight called the attention of the cabin crew while the aircraft was waiting to take off at the threshold of the runway, to the effect that they had seen a young boy walk under the aircraft and had not seen him reappear either side.
“The cabin crew in turn informed the pilots in the cockpit about this. The pilots called the control tower and asked them to request FAAN to do a sweep of the area after their departure, opting to carry on with their flight despite the report. Immediately upon the departure of the aircraft, FAAN’s security did another sweep of the area and found nothing unusual.
“Safety and security breaches occur when all the checks in the system are beaten. Given that security is a responsibility for all players in this industry, a critical last opportunity to detect and prevent this stowaway was offered and had the airline taken the information by passengers as seriously as they should have, this incident would have been avoided.”
He said FAAN was dealing with a number of legacy problems stemming from neglect over the years one of which is the perimeter fencing of airports across the country.
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