BY ABDULSALAM MUHAMMAD
KANO— Flight operations were Tuesday morning disrupted at Malam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano, when some stranded Muslims from Adamawa State, who were returning from Hajj, blocked the  runway.

The action came barely 24 hours after the aircraft conveying them to Yola, Adamawa State, crash- landed during an emergency in Kano on Monday morning.

Eyewitness told Vanguard that the protest lasted for two and half hours as scheduled flights in and out of the airport were temporarily suspended.

Vanguard learnt that the protest was triggered by the inability of the management of the local airline which brought them from Saudi Arabia to fly them to their destination, following the incident in which the crash-landed aircraft lost four tyres.

Aviation sources told Vanguard that the management of the airport, at a point considered using ‘’minimal force’’ to disperse the pilgrims from the runaway before a compromise deal was struck.

The management of Max Air, which was the airline that brought them to the airport later, diverted one of its jumbo jets from  Sokoto airport to restore nomalcy at the Kano Airport.

The stranded passengers were checked in at about 11 am and their aircraft took off 15 minutes later to Yola, its final destination.

In the meantime, National Civil Aviation Authority NCAA has grounded the  crash-landed aircraft, insisting that the aircraft must undergo fresh safety checks.

Aviation engineers had successfully fixed new tyres to the jet, now parked at the tarmac as at the time of this report.