Air Traffic Controllers Raise Alarm Over Nigeria Air Space

A shocking revelation about the poor facilities at the nation’s airports was made yesterday by air traffic controllers.

Nigerian airports’ communication and surveillance equipment are less than the standard, the President of the Nigeria Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA), Mr. Victor Eyaru, said. He advised the government to improve on these facilities to boost safety —an action that drew some anger.

Eyaru spoke yesterday in Asaba, the Delta State capital at the association’s Annual General Meeting.

Air traffic controllers are at the heart of aviation. They give instructions and information to pilots by radio.

As planes approach landing, the air traffic controller takes over contact with the pilots to ensure they are in the most efficient order for landing.

Eyaru’s statement came against the background of last week’s crash in Lagos of the Associated Aviation’s plane carrying 20 passengers and crew and the body of a former Ondo State Governor, Dr. Olusegun Agagu, to Akure for burial.

Fourteen people died in the crash, which sparked a national outcry, including a probe instituted by an angry Senate.

Yesterday, Minister of Tourism and Culture Mr Edem Duke said a major reform of the aviation sector was necessary.

Referring to the remodelling of the airports by Aviation Minister Stella Oduah, the air traffic controllers’ chief said: “As beautiful as the airport terminal buildings remodelling is, it would render the whole exercise a waste without ‘remodeling’ the CNS/ATM (Communication Navigation System and Air Traffic Management) facilities nationwide.”

He added that “the communication and surveillance facilities at the nation’s ATC units are not yet what they should be, to be able to boast of ensuring and sustaining air safety.”

Eyaru also alleged that air traffic controllers at the nation’s two area control centres in Kano and Lagos go through herculean tasks to communicate with pilots.

He said “there is the need for redundancies for our radar facilities in a bid to have reliable alternative whenever there is failure”.

Eyaru challenged the Nigeria Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) to “do better since it has no other business for existing other than to ensure air safety”.

He also spoke about the ageing workforce in all the agencies in the aviation sector and the dearth of professionals in the critical areas of NAMA,the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and the Nigeria College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), arising from the retirement of well-trained and highly skilled professionals without commensurate replacement through well established and sustained process of recruitment of suitable qualified persons”.

Eyaru noted that political appointees without cognate experience were being appointed to do critical aviation duties. The government, he said, should do the right thing, with a view “to salvage the all safety critical sector of Nigeria’s economy from total collapse”.

Apart from calling for the release of all outstanding promotions of deserving workers, he decried “the threat to sustenance of the agencies through paucity of funds and policy somersaults, which have affected the agencies negatively”.

But NAMA slammed the air control chief, describing his statement as “political”.

In a statement, the agency, which is in charge of safety and facilities at the airports, said Eyaru “obviously has his own script – bringing the agency into disrepute”.

The statement added: “Though the Agency has no grouse with his call for improvement, if indeed there was need for it, we wish to reiterate that Mr. Eyaru was very economical with the truth, failing to state that the crux of his complaints was not dysfunctional communication and surveillance across the nation but other issues he may not readily voice out.”

“Stating the obvious facts, there are three components of Air Traffic Management; Communication, Navigation and Surveillance. These three components must function at the minimum to achieve seamless air traffic management.

“There is one Flight Information Region (FIR) under Nigeria’s responsibility: the KANO FIRwith Air Traffic Services provided by Lagos and Kano Area Control Centers (ACCs) and several other Approach Control Centers.

“The basic role of any Air Traffic Management (ATM) system is to ensure the safety of all aircraft within the airspace, that is, prevent collision between aircraft, and between aircraft and fixed obstacles. The secondary objective of the ATM system is to organise and expedite the safe and orderly flow of Air Traffic by utilising and optimising the airspace as efficiently as possible.

“The Nigerian airspace, under Kano ACC and Lagos ACC have two sectors each designated Lagos East and West on Lagos ACC, and Kano East and Kano West on Kano ACC. These ACCs provide en-route control before handover to the various approach units. The Agency in the past embarked on several safety-critical projects to address perceived gaps in the airspace. Some of the projects include but not limited to the following:

“Total Radar Coverage of Nigeria project (TRACON): Provision of modern Air Traffic Management Systems in Lagos, Kano, Abuja and Port Harcourt, including autonomous radars in Ilorin, Maiduguri, Talata-Mafara.

SAFE TOWER: Provision of modern control towers in Lagos, Kano, Abuja and Port Harcourt.

“Total VHF Radio Coverage: Provision of Remote Controlled Air-Ground (RCAG) radio on satellite network for Kano and Lagos ACCs.

“AIS Automation: Provision of Automatic Message Handling Systems (AMHS) in Lagos and Kano, MF-TDMA VSAT network covering 26 airports and the National Emergency’s Coordination Center in Abuja.

WGS-84 (World Geodetic Survey – 84): World Geodetic Survey (WGS) reports for the four major international airports in Lagos, Kano, Abuja and Port Harcourt, and 18 other airports, airspace concept and GNSS procedures, including SIDs (Standard Instrument Departures) and STARs (Standard Terminal Arrival Routes) leading to the implementation of Performance-Based Navigation (PBN).

“Control Tower Rehabilitation: Renovation of 13 Control Towers in airports nationwide.

“It is on record that the Agency has successfully completed most of the projects above and the various deliverables of these projects have continued to contribute to the successes recorded in the aviation sector recently. These are verifiable facts and the continuous traffic growth in the Nigerian airspace attests to these facts. TRACON in particular has been classified as a global model for successful projects.

“It is ironical that the same Eyaru recently signed a congratulatory letter to the management of the agency on the successful implementation of Area Radar Control in Lagos and Kano sectors of the Nigerian airspace in May 2013. This, obviously, contradicts his new position and that is why we view his recent unguarded comments as political with obvious mischief to embarrass the Federal Government.

“While the Agency does not wish to join issues with Mr. Eyaru, given his abysmal record as an Air Traffic Controller, for the record and the umpteenth time, we want to use this medium to reassure Nigerians and all airspace users, pilots and other stakeholders on the safety and security of the Nigerian airspace.”