Thirty four passengers of Aero Contractors Flight AJ132, stranded overnight at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport, Abuja, from Friday, November 8, are demanding for an apology and 5 million naira compensation each from the airline.

According to some of the passengers, the flight, which was scheduled to leave from Abuja to Lagos at 6:30 p.m., was delayed until the following morning; forcing them to spend the night at the airport.

The passengers were left stranded at the tarmac around midnight with no official of the airline on ground to attend to them.

The airport which currently has no resting area or hotel consequently violated aviation laws which state that passengers in such situation must be housed in a decent hotel by the airline, and fed.

Charles Musa, one of the passengers and a lawyer currently representing 33 other passengers narrated that 30 passengers, including foreigners, went to sleep inside another plane as the plane on which they were supposed to leave was locked and no other provision was made for them by the Aero.

He further stated that the passengers were, however, asked to leave the plane by soldiers at about 3:00 a.m. on Saturday and that many of them ended up sleeping on the floor at the arrival lounge of the airport.

Mr. Musa revealed that after the incident, the airline called to offer him one hour free ticket to anywhere in Nigeria as compensation.

“Aero called me to offer me a one hour free ticket to anywhere in Nigeria, which I think is grossly inadequate and low for the damages. I was told by 34 other passengers that Aero also called them to offer them one hour free ticket to anywhere in Nigeria but we all rejected such an offer,” he said.

The lawyer added that after speaking to the 34 passengers, he wrote a letter to Aero, on behalf of the passengers, issuing the airline a seven-day ultimatum – starting from November 13 – to write the apology letter and pay the compensation claim.