by ‘Jola Sotubo

Some new arrivals to the country yesterday succumbed to excess heat as 4 people were said to have collapsed at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA) in Lagos.

The four passengers who had just arrived from the United States of America where the temperature is much cooler, were said to have been overwhelmed by the heat in the arrival area of the airport.

The affected passengers were waiting to claim their luggage after arriving aboard a Delta Airline flight.

Leadership reports:

The passengers were waiting for baggage reclaim but due to the ineffective cooling system at the hall, the travellers numbering over 1,000 had a difficult time leading to the collapse of the four.

A source close to the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) told LEADERSHIP Weekend that the cooling system was not working and that it might be due to the current remodelling of the airport.

It was learnt that two of the passengers were rushed to an undisclosed hospital in an ambulance belonging to the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN). In his reaction to the development, the general manager, public affairs of FAAN, Yakubu Dati, said the situation was exaggerated by online reports.

Another FAAN official contacted who preferred anonymity said the unhealthy situation at the arrival hall of the airport was not new to most air travellers who had had to contend with it as they passed through immigration and baggage collection.

“For those coming from Europe it is like coming from an extremely cold environment to an extremely hot environment and passengers have to sweat it out as they go through immigration formalities and then through the tortuous collection of their in luggage,” he said.