Medview’s passengers stranded in London, Lagos

Nigerian flag carrier airline, Medview left score of London bound passengers stranded at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos.

The over 120 passengers who had arrived at the Lagos airport as early as 8 am for their 1 pm departure were shocked when check-in could not commence with many of them claiming that no official of the airline was on hand to tell them what was happening.

A lawyer, Mr. Kunle Sanyaolu who accompanied his niece to the airport with the hope of departing for London called Woleshadare.net on telephone to explain passengers’ frustration at the turn of event.

As at 1pm, most of them were still waiting for information regarding their flight while others out of frustration left for their homes.

A visit to the airport saw intending travellers sitting under canopies outside the terminal building waiting for flights that may never happen because of unavailability of plane to airlift them.

Similar incident happened last week Wednesday as check-in passengers at the London Gatwick airport were disembarked from the aircraft allegedly without information according to a media chief, Mr. Ade Ogidan whose wife was one of the people asked to disembark.

Ogidan said his wife and other passengers were asked to come back on Saturday for their flight on Saturday but ended up not leaving London for Nigeria.

According to Ogidan, “My wife who had been in London was billed to return to Nigeria last week Wednesday. All the airport formalities had been done. They were checked into final area before they are called to board their flight.”

“They asked them to come back on Saturday. They returned to the airport on Saturday. They got to the airport and there is was no information as to the time the airline will operate”.

Our correspondent saw two buses loaded with some of the stranded passengers to a hotel in line with international standard.

The airline is yet to issue official statement as at press time to explain what caused the inability to airlift passengers but a source close to the airline who pleaded anonymity said the airplane had a snag which necessitated the management to take it for check.

The source further stated that the aircraft could not come back as expected, explaining that the airline went out to lease another airplane which the United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority (UK CAA) could perfect the documents that would have made the aircraft release possible.

Penultimate month, the airline was barred from the European airspace by the European Union Safety Committee of the European Commission (EC) aftermath of a failed application by Medview Airlines for a third country operator authorisation to the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).

The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority said the application failed during the verification of documents submitted by the airline which were found to be non-compliant with regulation (EC) No 2111/2005 and therefore could not qualify for approval.

The NCAA thereafter received the notification of non-compliance through the office of the Nigerian Mission to International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).