Barely a week after Aero Contractors embarrassed the nation by alighting its passengers with a make shift Ladder in Bauchi, Hunters for rats and squirrels on Wednesday set fire to the field of the airport in Ibadan, Oyo State, causing panic in the process.
The fire was said to have spread far into the fields of the airport and close to the runway, threatening to engulf the whole environment.
This led to apprehension among workers at the airport, who had to divert an Arik Air flight from Abuja to Ibadan to Lagos.
The pilot of the flight, which schedule was to leave Abuja at 9:40am and arrive Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, an hour later, was said to have announced descent into Ibadan when he suddenly took off again.
The pilot was to later tell bewildered passengers that there was a radio message of a fire outbreak at the Ibadan airport, hence the advice that the flight should head to Lagos.
After landing in Lagos and waiting for some time, the pilot was then advised again to head to Ibadan that the fire, from rats and squirrels hunters, had been contained.
The flight finally landed in Ibadan at about 2pm, sources said.