Nigeria seized a British plane accused of violating the commercial flight ban, one of the measures taken to try to stem the coronavirus epidemic, Nigerian Aviation Minister Hadi Sirika announced on Sunday.
The minister said on his Twitter account that the company Flair Aviation had been authorized to operate humanitarian flights in Nigeria, but that it had been caught on commercial flights.
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The Flair Aviation plane was "seized, the crew questioned" and "there will be a maximum fine" , he said, "It is the wrong time to try to test our determination" to act, added Mr. Sirika. Neither the company nor the British Embassy in Nigeria initially reacted to the seizure.
Nigeria has closed its airports and airspace since March in an attempt to stem the epidemic of cornavirus which has officially infected 5,621 people to date and killed 176. Only special flights are authorized, in particular humanitarian flights.