EgyptAir has given sad account of the moments before Remilekun Toyosi Meshioye, a Nigerian heading to the UK for study died.
Remilekun boarded EgyptAir’s Flight MS876, a Boeing 737-800 from the Murtala Muhammad International Airport, Lagos that was billed to stop in Cairo enroute UK but died before getting to her destination on Monday.
Contrary to earlier reports that she passed on inside the flight, a statement by the airlines General Manager in Nigeria, Mr. Basha, said she was only sick aboard.
According to Basha, the passenger’s route was Lagos to London via Cairo but that when the passenger arrived at the transit area, she reported sick and the airport quarantine department was called to check her and decided that she needed to be hospitalised.
“The airport authorities cleared and stamped her into the country and transferred her to the hospital. The Nigerian Embassy in Cairo was contacted and was informed about the case.
“More information and the following procedures to bring the body back need to be through the Nigerian Embassy in Cairo,” Egypt Air’s statement read.
Meanwhile, Olufunmilola Olaniyi-Alabi, the elder sister of the deceased in a statement she released on behalf of the bereaved family imputed cruelty to EgyptAir saying efforts made by them to obtain information concerning the passenger were rebuffed.
“It was only once that a man picked the call that we put through to EgyptAir Region Office in London and he said the London office is not aware of what happened and they don’t have information to share with us.
“So we were left with no choice but to report to the UK Police Department on Wednesday and they later confirmed to us that our sister was not in the UK. They advised us to contact Cairo or Lagos airports. We contacted the agent who sold the ticket to her and the agent sent us proof that she did not board the plane going to Heathrow from Cairo,” she explained.
She disclosed that it was at this point that they intensified their efforts as regards trying to get in touch with Egypt Air.
“Myself (Elder sister to Remilekun) and my husband reside in Leeds, UK later travelled to London (Heathrow) on Wednesday night to get to London on Thursday morning and we demanded to see the Egypt Air regional manager in their London office who made some calls on Thursday afternoon in her office to their Cairo office.”
