Nigerian Lady With Student Visa Dies On Lagos To London Flight

A young Nigerian lady, Remilekun Meshioye, has reportedly died aboard an Egypt Air flight en route to London, United Kingdom.

The incident happened while she was on her journey from Nigeria to London.

She boarded Egypt Air flight MS 876 departing from Murtala Muhammad International Airport (MMIA) in Lagos on Monday.

Report said the young lady was on her way to London with a student visa in hand. Her journey involved connecting flights, with Egypt Air MS 777 scheduled to transport her to London on the following day.

The family of Meshioye has however demanded that the corpse be released to them by the airline.

The family had issued a statement saying the airline didn’t inform them, but rather they got a message from the consular office in Cairo informing them of the death of their daughter on board the flight.

Olufunmilola Olaniyi-Alabi, the elder sister of the deceased who spoke on behalf of the family, in a statement said her sister Remilekun Toyosi Meshioye left Lagos for the UK on Monday at 14:00 via Egyptair line and eventually died between her transit from Lagos to Cairo according to the little information we got.

Olaniyi-Alabi said they called EgyptAir customer care and all other contact phone details on their website but no response all through Wednesday and when the phone was picked they quickly cut it.

“It was only once that a man picked up the call that we put through to Egypt Air 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 traveled 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.

“She later informed us that Remi fell sick in the plane and on landing in Cairo they rushed her to the hospital in town where she later died. The effort to obtain more information from her was not quite successful as to how she died. She said the Nigerian embassy has been informed and they are the ones that should have contacted us. She later called the Nigeria consular.

“I strongly feel that EgyptAir should have contacted us as the passenger’s next of kin as against us struggling to get information which as at this time that I am writing, they are yet to provide to us.

“We spoke to the Nigerian Embassy official who responded that EygptAir only informed them on Tuesday that Remi is dead and handed over her body to them but did not have any other information or any contact of her relatives.

“EygptAir further said that only the Nigeria embassy in the person of Saliu as a Nigerian Consular will be able to write and demand for what happened on the plane and at the airport to Remilekun and request for all her belongings and documents that they have in their possession, including the CCTV footage in the plane and at the airport,” Olaniyi-Alabi said.

At the time of this report, Egypt Air had not provided an immediate response to the incident.