MONROVIA – A Royal Air Maroc flight which was schedule to land at the Roberts International Airport (RIA) at 4 am on Sunday was forced to abort the landing due to dark runway at the RIA.
The flight, FrontPageAfrica gathered attempted several times, using the navigation system but was not successful.
As the plane was landing, the runway lights went off, forcing the plane to turn back, an eyewitness said.
According to eyewitnesses, the lights reportedly came on and the pilots were informed that they could try to land again but they refused.
Those on the flight were dropped in Sierra Leone and many were forced to come to Monrovia by road.
Passengers on the flight were reportedly taken to Freetown, Sierra Leone.
The inability for the flight to land left several passengers who were bound to board to the flight stranded at the RIA.
There have been several complaints coming airlines about the safety of the runway and other issues relating to the quality of jet fuel being supplied at the RIA.
FrontPageAfrica gathered that the airlines are not happy with the quality of fuel being supplied by CONEX which has compelled Brussels to bring back their check-in time and Air France to fly to Abidjan for refueling before taking off for their destination.
This is not the first time airlines have hinted on the compromising of safety measures at the Roberts International Airport, especially the illumination of the runway to aid safe landing.
The airport management have continuously remained tightlipped on the issue which to scare present and potential airlines from coming to Liberia.
The basic runway lighting system consists of two straight parallel lines of runway edge lights defining the lateral limits of the runway. These lights are aviation white, although aviation yellow may be substituted for a distance of 2,000 feet from the far end of the runway to indicate a caution zone.