Breaking: US nationals in flight hitch, stranded in Lagos over airspace permit

Hundreds of Americans scheduled to be evacuated from Lagos were left stranded this morning at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.

The US nationals who had already check-in by the airport authorities were seen collecting their baggage from through arrival baggage belts with the plan to go back home.

A top official of one of the aviation agencies told Woleshadarenews that the flight that was supposed to evacuate them was ‘cancelled due to the inability of the airplane to over-fly some countries’.

Overflight permits are authorizations from Civil Aviation Authorities (CAAs) to overfly that country’s airspace.

These differ in terms of regulations and airspace coverage area, depending on the country. It’s always important to check over-flight permit requirements in advance with your 3rd-party provider for the planned route of flight.

A total of 637 French and German citizens were yesterday evacuated from Nigeria through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos by their governments.

Air France’s A330 airplane which was the first to land departed at 13.56hr while Lufthansa German Airline departed with her nationals at 15.46hr.

Before their departure, the Germans underwent airport security formalities and screening for COVID-19  as they awaited the Lufthansa flight which landed few hours after for the evacuation under ‘emergency’ and ‘humanitarian’ flight operations.