Airport Scare: Taxi Rams Into Arik Plane Leaving Passengers In Horror

CALABAR March 31, (THEWILL) – Passengers on an Arik Air plane at the Margaret Ekpo International Airport were stunned on Wednesday afternoon when a man apparently on a suicide mission drove his taxi right into the plane which was parked on the tarmac as passengers boarded for a flight to Abuja.

Eyewitnesses at the airport told THEWILL the irate driver drove the Audi 80 sedan with registration number XA 254 KAM, painted in state taxi colours, into the Boeing 737 plane after smashing through the gates of the airport’s Air Force Base at about 2.30 p.m. WAT.

Both Passengers who had already boarded the plane and those on the queue waiting to get onboard all ran to take cover fearing that it was a terrorist attack and that an explosion might occur.

Airport security personnel including an anti-bomb team from the police force and the airport’s fire service moved in after it was determined safe and subdued the attacker.

The man who appeared to be in his mid-thirties after his arrest was heard saying in a local dialect that he was fighting a holy war against evil persons in the country demanding to see President Umaru Yar’Adua and Cross River State Governor, Liyel Imoke.

One of the passengers who had already boarded the plane was Cross River State Forestry Commission Chairman, Odigha Odigha. In chat with reporter, he said, "We were inside the plane and we were about to take off when the alarm came, and we were asked to disembark. Initially, we thought it was fire and everybody scrambled down. It was when we got down we discovered that a cab was right under the belly of the aircraft." 

It is still unclear how the cab made it through two 'secure' Air Force gates before it got access to the tarmac. No one from the Nigerian Air Force was willing to comment on the incident. An Air Force staff, O. G.  Akonye said he had no authority to comment on the security breach.

The state's Deputy Governor Efiok Cobham led a team of government officials to the airport to get first hand knowledge on the incident as Arik engineers battled to remove the damaged taxi from the belly of the plane.

The state's Deputy Police Commissioner, Tonye Ebitibituwa and a team of policemen were also at the airport to assess the situation.