Southwest Airlines spokesperson Linda Rutherford said an earthen dam attheendoftherunway was interfering with the signal being sent to inbound flights.
There are about a dozen cargo and passenger planes at what workers call the "graveyard", an overgrown field atthe far north endoftherunwayatthe airport, which is a major transport hub for West Africa, AP reports.
The TAM airlines Airbus A320 flight that originated in Porto Alegre in southern Brazil on Tuesday cleared the airport fence attheendoftherunway and the busy highway but slammed into a gas station and a TAM building, causing an inferno.
The airport was not placed in a state of full-scale alert at any time but the stranded plane remained attheendoftherunway for over an hour forcing 12 flights due to land at Manchester to be diverted to Leeds, Liverpool and Birmingham Airports.
Last week the company said it was looking atthe possibility of giving the grass runwayat Land's End airport a hard covering, and that a decision would be made "soon".