A herd of cattle strayed onto the runway of Akure Airport at the weekend and prevented an Air Peace flight from Lagos from landing for more than 15 minutes.
The cows had wandered from surrounding fields and bushes where they were foraging for grass.when the pilot sighted the animals on the runway.
The pilot, Captain Inyang, apparently alerted the control tower which, in turn, passed the information to the security personnel of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria.
A witness to the incident, Governor Ayodele Fayose of neighbouring Ekiti State, took to the social media to express his disgust at the development.
Writing on his Twitter handle, Fayose said: “Today, while at the Akure Airport to board Air Peace commercial flight to Lagos, I witnessed cows taking over the Airport runway and preventing Aircraft No. 5NBQQ from landing for more than 15 minutes. Thanks to Capt Inyang for saving the lives of the passengers.”
Meanwhile, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has apologised to Air Peace Airlines and its passengers for the incident.
FAAN issued the apology in a statement signed by its General Manager, Corporate Affairs , Mrs Henrietta Yakubu.
Yakubu said the Air Peace flight, which left Lagos for Akure could not land immediately as some cows strayed onto the runway of the airport.
She however, said normalcy was restored quickly, as officers of the aviation security department quickly dispersed the cows from the runway and the aircraft was cleared for landing.
“The authority will like to assure travellers and the general public that efforts are already ongoing to close the gap that aided this incident,” she added.
Also, the Corporate Communications Manager of Air Peace, Mr Chris Iwarah, also confirmed the incident in a statement issued on Saturday.
“Flight P4 7002 from Lagos had to delay landing into Akure Airport on Saturday when the pilot-in-command sighted cows on the runway at about 12.15pm,” the statement read.
“On being alerted by control tower, aviation security personnel of the FAAN (FAAN AVSEC) quickly intervened and cleared the runway.
“The flight was eventually cleared to land after about seven minutes. Our guests on board were all calm while the delay lasted.”
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