BREAKING: Shock as Man’s Burnt Body is Found on Entebbe Airport Runway

Uganda’s CAA collects an aviation security fee of about $65 (roughly Shs240,000–Shs245,000) from the cost of each departing international passenger’s ticket

Entebbe International Airport runway

Ugandan aviation police are investigating how an unidentified man ended up dead on the runway at Entebbe International Airport, an incident that is likely to intensify scrutiny of security at the country’s main air gateway despite tens of millions of dollars collected annually from passengers.

The body was discovered early on Feb. 6 at Apron 1 of the airport, according to a police incident report, with preliminary findings suggesting the individual may have been struck by a departing or landing aircraft.

Control tower officers detected the body at about 0500 hours and alerted police.

Investigators say the deceased, an adult male with no identification documents, appeared to have suffered fresh burn wounds on the face and stomach, and may have been pulled by the force of an aircraft.

Authorities believe he may have trespassed into the restricted airside area during the night.

“Our security teams discovered a dead body of an unknown adult male at Apron 1 runway,” a source confided in ChimpReports on Tuesday night adding that intelligence agencies and airside patrol teams had earlier been searching for an intruder seen in the restricted zone.

The body was transferred to Mulago National Referral Hospital for a postmortem as forensic teams opened an inquiry into how the individual gained access to the secure section of the airport.

The Uganda Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) had not issued an official statement on the incident as of today.

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The episode has revived concerns about airport perimeter security and access controls at Entebbe, the country’s only international airport, which handles the bulk of Uganda’s passenger and cargo traffic.

Uganda’s CAA collects an aviation security fee of about $65 (roughly Shs240,000–Shs245,000) from the cost of each departing international passenger’s ticket.

With roughly one million passengers departing Entebbe every year, the charge generates an estimated $65 million annually for aviation security and related infrastructure.

According to the Uganda Civil Aviation Authority (UCAA), traffic at the airport has been rising.

The authority said there were 550,439 international arrivals and 582,927 international departures recorded between January and June 2025.

This marked an increase from the 1,069,224 passengers registered in the same period of 2024, a 4.3% growth in arrivals and a 7.6% increase in departures.

Despite the growing passenger numbers and the sizable security fee collections, the airport has in recent years faced sporadic security and safety concerns, including incidents involving unauthorized access to restricted areas, theft, and operational lapses, according to aviation and security officials.

The latest case is likely to raise questions from regulators and lawmakers about whether the security fees collected from passengers are being adequately translated into effective perimeter protection, surveillance, and patrol systems.

Entebbe International Airport is undergoing a multiyear modernization program funded largely by loans from the Export–Import Bank of China, aimed at expanding passenger capacity, improving safety systems, and strengthening security infrastructure as Uganda positions itself as a regional aviation hub.

Authorities said investigations into the Feb. 6 incident were ongoing and would focus on determining the identity of the deceased, the circumstances of his entry into the airside zone, and whether any security protocols were breached.