Bomb scare at P’Harcourt airport

Posted by admin Headlines Thursday, March 17th, 2011

Passengers on an Arik Port Harcourt-Lagos flight had their schedules disrupted yesterday morning when the aircraft was grounded for several hours to enable security officials carry out thorough checks following a text message from one of the passengers that bomb has been planted on the airplane.
The aircraft earlier scheduled to depart PHC by 8.00am had to be grounded and another one provided to airlift them much later.

Daily Sun gathered that the airline was on the verge of completing boarding of passengers when a former popular actress who was aboard the aircraft received the phone call advising her to disembark because the bomb had been planted in the plane. Another source however said it was a text message which she got that made her to raise alarm.

Expectedly, the crew on board approached her to see the text message and on confirmation, they immediately informed the pilot, who in turn informed the control tower.
In line with security protocols, the passengers and baggage were immediately evacuated from the airplane for re-screening.
Everyone marched back into the terminal building with their hand luggage where applicable.
As that went on, officials of River State Anti-bomb Squad and State Security Service screened the passengers while the woman with the text message was whisked away for further investigations.
Also thoroughly scanned was the entire airplane, which was taken to a remote area.
Reacting to the development, the Managing Director of Arik Air, Chris Ndulue at a press briefing said the decision to temporarily ground the flight was to ensure the safety and security of the passengers was assured.

A similar scare was witnessed aboard an Aero Abuja-Lagos flight on Saturday, April 10, 2010 where a passenger insisted he should be de-boarded when the airplane was on the verge of departure.

When the crew beckoned on the passenger to ascertain why he suddenly changed his mind, the man, suspected to be from the northern part of the country had insisted that as a passenger, he had every right to change his mind on flying. At this point, other passengers smelt a rat, suspecting that the passenger might be a terrorist who had planted a bomb or any other dangerous object on the flight and want to escape.

As the cabin became rowdy, the pilot and crew disembarked the passenger and his luggage.
Still not satisfied, a cross section of the passengers said they no longer felt safe making the flight.
In the end, it was agreed that all the passengers and crew de-boarded for a complete security check of the airplane, all passengers and their luggage.

-Sunwp_posts