Chinese Doctors’ Flight: How 3 Air Peace Crew Members Fled Quarantine Centre

Matilda Omonaiye/

Three out of the 17 Air Peace’s pilots and flight attendants who flew 14 Chinese medical doctors and medical supplies from China to Nigeria on Wednesday temporarily boycotted the quarantine centre provided by the Lagos State Government, Sunday PUNCH reports.

The crew, who flew the Boeing 777-200ER jumbo jet from China, landed at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.

The 17 pilots and flight attendants later on Wednesday proceeded to Lagos to be quarantined by the Lagos State Government in line with an agreement between the Ministry of Health and the carrier’s management.  The Chinese medical personnel were quarantined in Abuja.

The Chinese team reportedly brought about 16 tons of test kits, ventilators, disinfection machine, disposable medical masks, N95 masks, medications, rubber gloves, protective gowns, goggles, face shields, infra-red thermometers and others.

According to Sunday PUNCH, the flight crew members however disagreed with Port Health Services officials on duty at Lagos airport over the 14-day compulsory quarantine, claiming they were not informed of it by their management.

As such, the flight personnel initially refused to follow the port health officials to the quarantine centre provided by the Lagos State Government.

There was subsequently a heated exchange that lasted for about three hours between the crew and the port health officials.

After several calls by the port health officials on duty to top officials of the Ministry of Health in Abuja as well as top officials of the Lagos State Ministry of Health, the crew members bowed to pressure and agreed to go to the quarantine centre at about 1am.

On arriving the Scholars Lodge at the University of Lagos where the state government had prepared for the crew to be quarantine around 2am, another debate ensued over the type of the apartment provided.

The crew members insisted that they wanted a single-user apartment for each member of the crew instead of the two-bedroom apartment meant to be shared by two persons which the state provided.

The crew reportedly asked officers on duty to take them to another facility as the apartments were not the type they wanted.  This debate, it was learnt, went on for another three hours till about 5am before the crew finally agreed to stay at the centre.

Meanwhile, before the crew departed the Lagos airport, one of the 17 crew members had escaped and left apparently for his house, unknown to the port health officials.

This was not discovered until Thursday evening when a head count was conducted at the quarantine centre.

It was also at this time officials discovered that two out of the 16 crew members brought to the Scholars Lodge had also escaped.

The newspaper however quoted the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health, Abdullahi Mashi, as confirming that the cabin crew members who left the quarantine centre had returned to the facility.

Mashi also said the relevant agencies of government would trace all the people they have had contact with during the period they were missing from the facility.

“They are back, it is left for the Lagos State surveillance team to work on that. They will do the needful. The important thing is that they are back,” Mashi said

Air Peace also reportedly confirmed the development but did not explain the reasons the crew members left the facility.

The Chief Operating Officer, Air Peace, Mrs Toyin Olajide, in a terse message said, “All crew are back in the quarantine facility, including the engineer.”

She added that the crew members returned to the facility on Friday.

Also, the Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Ministry of Health, Dr Olusegun Ogunye, when contacted on the matter, confirmed the development but noted that all the 17 pilots and flight attendants were back in the facility.

Ogunye, who spoke through the spokesperson for the state health ministry, Mr Tubosun Ogubanwo, said, “The state government has reached out to all the 17 pilots and flight attendants through the Epidemiology and Surveillance Team on COVID-19. So, all 17 of them are now together.”

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