Enugu – It was jubilation galore, Saturday, as the first international aircraft, the Ethiopian Airline Boeing 737-800 ET-APL landed at the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu.
People coming down from the Ethiopian Airline on arrival at Akanu Ibiam International Airport Enugu PHOTO BY HILL EZEUGWU
The aircraft which took off from Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital touched down at the reconstructed Enugu airport at 12.13pm. It’s safe arrival sparked jubilation from the cultural troupes, airport workers and a huge crowd that assembled to welcome it.
The crowd was made up of people from the five South East states, who showered praises on President Goodluck Jonathan for fulfilling his promise to give Ndigbo an international airport.
As the Boeing 737-800 marked ET-APL taxied along the tarmac, it was ‘baptized’ with a “flood and flush” of clean water from the two fire fighting trucks stationed on both sides of the tarmac until it was almost covered with the “flush-and-splatter of water”.
An official of Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, said the flood of water on the aircraft was a way of “toasting it” to mark the celebration of its safe arrival.