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Gradually, it is becoming increasingly apparent to discerning Nigerians that air mishaps or incidents have no bearing on the safety
or otherwise of the airspace. Previous air crashes in the country have
been traced to poor pilot judgment, fatigue and poor aircraft
maintenance.
In all these hypothetical instances, disasters resulting in loss of
lives and maiming and destruction have been the outcome of most
crashes and early findings of the Accident Investigation Bureau often
suggest all or a combination of the above causes of the crashes
and not the challenge of airspace. It must also be stressed that a
good standard of road network in a country does not necessarily denote
absence of road accidents. Several other factors such as the health of
the vehicle and the driver’s state of mind account for accidents as it
were.
Still it is heartwarming to note that in Nigeria the Federal
Authorities are not leaving anything to chance on the question of
ensuring an all- round and eagle-eye watch over the aviation industry
which has witnessed great improvement lately under the present
administration of President Goodluck Jonathan.
The President has deployed the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency
(NAMA) with Engineer Ibrahim Abdulsalam as the Managing Director to
offer critical intervention in the country’s airspace. With such
operational facilities as NAVAIDS incorporating Instrument Landing
System, Very High Omni Directional Radio Range and Total Radar
Coverage of Nigeria (TRACON) among others, NAMA has succeeded in
delivering safe skies to the country.
TRACON is the pivot which President Goodluck Jonathan commissioned on
October 18, 2010. It has 9 radar locations in Lagos, Abuja, Port
Harcourt and Kano with each having both primary and secondary co-fixed
radar head. There are five other stand-alone stations in Ilorin,
Maiduguri, Talata Mafara, Nunma and Obubra. The primary has a range of
65 nautical miles while the secondary covers 250. The overlapping
range enables the air traffic controllers to monitor flights far
beyond the shores of the country.
At the TRACON control rooms at the major airports in Lagos, Port
Harcourt, Abuja and Kano one can easily see the screens and the
controllers at work. At these airports one can view aircraft landing
at the neighbouring flight information regions through the monitoring
screens.
Lately the agency has unveiled a new plan to boost security in the
Niger Delta and protect the country’s Oil Industry using
multi-lateration surveillance in the Delta creeks. The initiative will
cover Helicopter activities of the oil companies. This initiative will
definitely increase the agency’s revenue on installation.
It is reckoned that since there are more than 160 daily flights of
such type in the region, the new NAMA drive would attract tremendous
patronage to benefit both the agency, oil companies and the nation at
large.
NAMA has also been known to be working on the completion of WGS-84
survey of 26 airports to prepare them for performance based navigation
system (PBN). Procedures for the four major airports in Lagos, Abuja,
Port Harcourt and Kano have been completed while trials for PBN were
arrived at recently by some airlines. They recorded outstanding
results!
Recently 13 towers of some airports of the nation’s facilities were
refurbished to eliminate communication breakdown within the airspace.
In this regard, NAMA is planning to install Controller Pilot Data Link
Communication (CPDLC), the modern system used globally to sustain
uninterrupted reach among airborne and the ground control.
Also worthy of mention is the recent installation of solar powered
Airfield Lighting System at Lagos and Port Harcourt International
Airports. The installed lighting system is a product of Avlite System
Pty Ltd, Australia. The lighting system is certified by ICAO and FAA
and is in currently in use at various airports around the world.
The installation of lighting at these two airports has galvanized the
tempo of night and low visibility operations, thereby reducing
operational cost to airlines.NAMA is also to benefit from this project
in the area of low maintenance cost.
Also as part of efforts to improve safety, the agency is deploying
VSAT facilities and systems for installation at 11 designated centres
across the country to automate aeronautical information service. These
stations include NAMA Hqtrs, NEMA Hqtrs, Lagos, Kano and Abuja. Others
are Port Harcourt, Sokoto Ilorin, Jos, Maiduguri and Wukari. The
automation of aeronautical information service billed to commence by
October 2014 is expected to bring about efficiency and precision in
the aeronautical information dissemination.
This would as a consequence, translate into reduction in man hours as
most of the paper work would give way to digitalization. It would
also integrate the country’s aeronautical information system into the
System Wide Information Management Network. The benefits of AIS
automation are legion.
As a backbone to the above infrastructural acquisition, several
categories of technical staff to include Air Traffic controllers and
engineers are being trained regularly both at home and abroad to boost
capacity and also sustain the drive for technology transfer.
The operations of these highly technical devices, needless to say, are
digitalized with skilled and well-trained staff required to man them.
Their training, locally and abroad, together with capital investment
on critical areas of air safety, is said to have cost the Federal
government more than $9.5m.
Now we have a government and an agency that are collaborating to
ensure that an enabling environment for investors in the aviation
sector to offer flawless service to the people and the nation is
created.
For without safe air corridors, monitored round the clock by well
trained technical crew and modern and regularly maintained tracking
systems, the best pilot flying the best aircraft would be a mere
accident waiting to happen. Good aircraft and good flight crew
operating in unsecured skies are potential tragedies.
or otherwise of the airspace. Previous air crashes in the country have
been traced to poor pilot judgment, fatigue and poor aircraft
maintenance.
In all these hypothetical instances, disasters resulting in loss of
lives and maiming and destruction have been the outcome of most
crashes and early findings of the Accident Investigation Bureau often
suggest all or a combination of the above causes of the crashes
and not the challenge of airspace. It must also be stressed that a
good standard of road network in a country does not necessarily denote
absence of road accidents. Several other factors such as the health of
the vehicle and the driver’s state of mind account for accidents as it
were.
Still it is heartwarming to note that in Nigeria the Federal
Authorities are not leaving anything to chance on the question of
ensuring an all- round and eagle-eye watch over the aviation industry
which has witnessed great improvement lately under the present
administration of President Goodluck Jonathan.
The President has deployed the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency
(NAMA) with Engineer Ibrahim Abdulsalam as the Managing Director to
offer critical intervention in the country’s airspace. With such
operational facilities as NAVAIDS incorporating Instrument Landing
System, Very High Omni Directional Radio Range and Total Radar
Coverage of Nigeria (TRACON) among others, NAMA has succeeded in
delivering safe skies to the country.
TRACON is the pivot which President Goodluck Jonathan commissioned on
October 18, 2010. It has 9 radar locations in Lagos, Abuja, Port
Harcourt and Kano with each having both primary and secondary co-fixed
radar head. There are five other stand-alone stations in Ilorin,
Maiduguri, Talata Mafara, Nunma and Obubra. The primary has a range of
65 nautical miles while the secondary covers 250. The overlapping
range enables the air traffic controllers to monitor flights far
beyond the shores of the country.
At the TRACON control rooms at the major airports in Lagos, Port
Harcourt, Abuja and Kano one can easily see the screens and the
controllers at work. At these airports one can view aircraft landing
at the neighbouring flight information regions through the monitoring
screens.
Lately the agency has unveiled a new plan to boost security in the
Niger Delta and protect the country’s Oil Industry using
multi-lateration surveillance in the Delta creeks. The initiative will
cover Helicopter activities of the oil companies. This initiative will
definitely increase the agency’s revenue on installation.
It is reckoned that since there are more than 160 daily flights of
such type in the region, the new NAMA drive would attract tremendous
patronage to benefit both the agency, oil companies and the nation at
large.
NAMA has also been known to be working on the completion of WGS-84
survey of 26 airports to prepare them for performance based navigation
system (PBN). Procedures for the four major airports in Lagos, Abuja,
Port Harcourt and Kano have been completed while trials for PBN were
arrived at recently by some airlines. They recorded outstanding
results!
Recently 13 towers of some airports of the nation’s facilities were
refurbished to eliminate communication breakdown within the airspace.
In this regard, NAMA is planning to install Controller Pilot Data Link
Communication (CPDLC), the modern system used globally to sustain
uninterrupted reach among airborne and the ground control.
Also worthy of mention is the recent installation of solar powered
Airfield Lighting System at Lagos and Port Harcourt International
Airports. The installed lighting system is a product of Avlite System
Pty Ltd, Australia. The lighting system is certified by ICAO and FAA
and is in currently in use at various airports around the world.
The installation of lighting at these two airports has galvanized the
tempo of night and low visibility operations, thereby reducing
operational cost to airlines.NAMA is also to benefit from this project
in the area of low maintenance cost.
Also as part of efforts to improve safety, the agency is deploying
VSAT facilities and systems for installation at 11 designated centres
across the country to automate aeronautical information service. These
stations include NAMA Hqtrs, NEMA Hqtrs, Lagos, Kano and Abuja. Others
are Port Harcourt, Sokoto Ilorin, Jos, Maiduguri and Wukari. The
automation of aeronautical information service billed to commence by
October 2014 is expected to bring about efficiency and precision in
the aeronautical information dissemination.
This would as a consequence, translate into reduction in man hours as
most of the paper work would give way to digitalization. It would
also integrate the country’s aeronautical information system into the
System Wide Information Management Network. The benefits of AIS
automation are legion.
As a backbone to the above infrastructural acquisition, several
categories of technical staff to include Air Traffic controllers and
engineers are being trained regularly both at home and abroad to boost
capacity and also sustain the drive for technology transfer.
The operations of these highly technical devices, needless to say, are
digitalized with skilled and well-trained staff required to man them.
Their training, locally and abroad, together with capital investment
on critical areas of air safety, is said to have cost the Federal
government more than $9.5m.
Now we have a government and an agency that are collaborating to
ensure that an enabling environment for investors in the aviation
sector to offer flawless service to the people and the nation is
created.
For without safe air corridors, monitored round the clock by well
trained technical crew and modern and regularly maintained tracking
systems, the best pilot flying the best aircraft would be a mere
accident waiting to happen. Good aircraft and good flight crew
operating in unsecured skies are potential tragedies.
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