Nigeria's main airport was closed on Saturday to repair its sole functioning runway, officials said, four days after a light passenger aircraft skidded off the pothole-etched tarmac after landing.
The incident on Tuesday involving an Associated Airlines plane carrying 20 people, happened days after 117 people died in a plane crash in Nigeria, raising concern about air safety in the world's eighth biggest oil exporter.
"The domestic runway was closed today for maintenance, there are patches that need to be refilled," Samuel Adurogboye, a spokesman of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority said. "There is pressure on the runway because of the unavailability of the international runway," he added.
The closure of the domestic runway, which has been used for all flights since October 2004 when the international runway was shut for repair, is the second in the last three months. It was first closed in July to patch potholes after a Lufthansa aircraft ran into a hole on the tarmac.
The usable runway at Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Nigeria's biggest airport, is scarred with potholes and is easily waterlogged, problems which have caused a series of non-fatal accidents this year.
Associated Airlines' 18-year-old Short SD3-60 twin turboprop lost control as it landed in torrential rain on a second attempt, causing no injuries to passengers and crew.
The incident kept the spotlight on air safety in Nigeria, after a Bellview Airlines Boeing 737 crashed on October 22 minutes after take-off from Lagos, killing all 117 people on board. There is still no official word on the cause of the accident.
