A BA83 flight from London-Heathrow to Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja, was abruptly diverted to Lagos, which led to the latest situation.
Although BA did not give a justification for the choice, given that other foreign embassies had issued travel advisories to their people, it is possible that the flight's detour was related to the Abuja terror threat.
Foreigners are apparently departing the country in large numbers despite the federal government's efforts to ease their concerns, and on Thursday, a major mall in Nigeria's capital closed.
According to Daily Trust, after BA carried passengers from Lagos intended for Abuja to Lagos on Thursday, the passengers—most of whom were Nigerians—refused to get off the plane and requested that the flight end in Abuja.
One of the travellers said in a WhatsApp group that the crew threatened to deploy tear gas on the primarily Nigerian passengers inside the aircraft when they refused and urged that the flight end in Abuja as agreed.
"They had been mentioning Abuja to the passengers ever since they boarded last night. Why must you visit that location! The jet ultimately took off after a boisterous session and an hour on the ground, and it touched down in Abuja at around 11am.
However, according to information obtained by our correspondent, the flight to Abuja that was scheduled to leave London at 10 p.m. on Friday and arrive at 4:40 a.m. on Saturday has been cancelled.
On the flight radar, it was also visible that the flights to Abuja scheduled for Friday and Saturday had been cancelled.
However, it was learned that the return flight from Abuja to London took off normally.
At the time this article was filed, British Airways had not issued an official statement.