Teenager Arrested in the Tyre Compartment of a Plane at Lagos Airport

There was an incident of security breach at the private general aviation terminal, Execujet, on Sunday, when a teenager, Samuel Ogundeyi, suspected to be a stowaway was arrested in the tyre compartment of an aircraft.

The aircraft was parked in the hangar of Execujet terminal of Murtala Muhammed International Airport Lagos.
A reliable source within the private terminal, who refused to have his name in print, said the teenager was discovered at about 12 noon when pilots of the aircraft marked M-MYNA, were carrying out a routine inspection on the aircraft before starting the engine.

The commanding pilot of the aircraft was said to have detected the boy in the tyre compartment of the aircraft.

The suspect also had in his possession two handsets without sim cards which he claimed were his.



In his confessional statement, the suspect claimed he had entered the hangar through the facility of the Headquarters, Air Defence Corps of the Nigerian Air Force located next to the Presidential/ VIP Lounge in the airport, on Saturday night with the help of a person he identified only as “a brother.”

The boy, who spoke in Yoruba and pidgin English languages, said he was able to cross the L18 runway over to ExecuJet facility located in the international wing of the airport, a distance of about one kilometre, at night when he noticed there was no flight landing or taking off on the runway.

The aircraft operated by Tag Aviation was said to have flown in a former Minister of Petroleum, Chief Dan Etete, into Lagos airport on Saturday night and parked at the private hangar, where it was expected to take off on Sunday afternoon before the incident happened.

All efforts by our correspondent to get the spokespersons for the Nigerian Air Force, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria to comment on the incident proved abortive as calls made to their mobile telephones were not going through.