COVID-19: Confusion as passengers denied exit in Kano airport over sick co-traveller

Passengers onboard an Air Peace flight from Lagos were on Tuesday denied exit at the domestic wing of Malam Aminu Kano International Airport after one of the passengers was spotted ill during the flight hours.

Sources told Daily Trust that the pilot of the aircraft who noted the sick passenger alerted the airport authorities before landing and on arrival the captain of the flight refused to let the passengers disembark until he ascertains that the sick passenger test negative of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).

There was panic at the airport as the staff keep a distance from the aircraft for fear of coming into contact with the sick passenger who was suspected to be infected with the virus.

Impeccable source from the airport said the drama lasted for some minutes before the medical personnel at the airport arrived and took the patient to the COVID-19 screening facility at the airport’s Terminal II.

The source said the 17-year-old passenger was on a first time experience onboard an aircraft and therefore had shown signs of phobia throughout the flight duration.

He added that the young man who tested negative of Coronavirus vomited immediately the aircraft landed.

The Director, Consumer Protection, NCAA, Malam Adamu Abdullahi, who confirmed the incident to journalists, said there was no Coronavirus passenger onboard the flight but a young boy who was air sick.

He said, the reason for the pilot not opening the aircraft door on landing was to reassure passengers that there was no cause for alarm.

Malam Adamu stated, “The actual issue is that there was a pax on board the flight whom have never travelled by air and started vomiting on board and the Captain wants everything to be under control before disembarking”.