Ebun Francis with agency reports
The lifeless body of a stowaway was on Wednesday retrieved from the main wheel well of one of Arik Air’s A330-200 aircraft at the Oliver Tambo International Airport, Johannesburg.
This was disclosed by Ariks Communications Manager, Mr. Ola Adebanji, in a statement which stated that the aircraft operated the scheduled Lagos-Johannesburg flight that departed the Murtala Muhammed International Airport at 3:55pm on Tuesday and arrived in Johannesburg shortly before 11pm.
Mr Adebanji, said engineers of South African Airways Technical facility at the Oliver Tambo International Airport, where the aircraft was scheduled for a routine maintenance check, discovered the body of the stowaway during the inspection phase.
Arik airline said investigations were ongoing to determine how the stowaway found his way into the aircraft’s main wheel well.
This would be about the fourth time over the last four years that Nigerians would attempt to hide on flights operated by Arik Air in both domestic and international flights. The most reported case was that of a young boy who successfully stowed away on a Lagos bound Arik flight from Benin, with the hope that the flight was Europe bound in 2013.