Arik Air planeA German passenger, who was waiting to board a flight at the Lagos local airport, on Friday slumped and died, police said. A media consultant for Arik Air said the passenger slumped while boarding the aircraft.
Nigerian airports lack equipment or trained personnel for emergency situations and the German was taken to a hospital away from the airport vicinity but died.
Mr. Brenard Christo was at the General Aviation Terminal of the Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos waiting to board an Arik flight to Benin, the capital of Edo state, when he suddenly collapsed.
He was rushed to a hospital outside the airport but died, police said. It was not clear he made it to the hospital alive or died on his way.
Newspapers quoted the Police Public Relations Officer at the Airport Police Command, a Deputy Superintendent of Police, Joseph Alabi, as saying that the deceased was waiting to board a local Arik Air flight on Friday morning to his destination when he suddenly collapsed.
He said medical officials attached to the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria immediately rushed to the scene to assist the German citizen who later died in an undisclosed hospital. It was not clear whether the Airport staff were trained for such emergencies.
Online newspaper, AbelNews, quoted the Media Consultant to Arik Air, Mr. Simon Tumba, as saying : “What happened was that a passenger enroute Benin, when he was boarding, slumped and collapsed.
“And Arik, being a responsible carrier promptly contacted the medics from FAAN and it was when the medics took him to the hospital that he later died.”