Firm disappears with NAMA’s €11m airspace safety fund-Ex-agency chief
- FG paid 95% upfront as ‘black spots’ worry pilots
The Federal Government through the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission [EFCC] may go after a contractor that was awarded €11 million contract for the provision of radio communication in the country’s airspace which has become not only epileptic but one which makes the airspace to be riddled with blind spots.
A former Executive Director, Safety Electronics and Engineering of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency [NAMA], Mr. Chima Nwankwo stated that the contract for the job was awarded to Messr. Mokon ten years ago, adding that 95 per cent of the fund had already been paid to the firm.
Nwankwo who spoke at the quarterly business breakfast meeting by Aviation Safety Round Table Initiative [ASRTI] with theme, ‘Safety challenges in air navigation and air traffic service delivery in Nigeria’, further stated that the problem of NAMA was not radar but communication, stressing that radar is functioning but hampered by lack of effective airspace communication system.
The ex-NAMA chief’s expose underscore the poor state of radio communication in the airspace which have pitched pilots against air traffic controllers. There have been complaints over “blind spots”, where it is becoming difficult for pilots to effectively communicate with air traffic personnel at the tower.
His words, ‘The problem of blind spots is not because of ineffectiveness of the total radar coverage of Nigeria [TRACON] but the issue of communication. Pilots find it difficult to communicate with air traffic controllers in some cases.’
‘Little over ten years ago, the government at that time awarded a contract to Messr. Mokon. The contractor bolted away with €11 million contract sum and bolted away. Uptill now, the contractor cannot be found and the huge funds for airspace communication facilities have disappeared into thin air. This matter is at the heart of airspace safety for Nigeria.’
Experts say effective cockpit and control tower communication is a minimum requirement by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) for safe air navigation.
However, some aircraft pilots are said to be diverting flights from the airspace to other contiguous airspace for poor radio communication.
Worried by the development, the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) said it has put a machinery in place to accelerate upgrade of the airspace radio communication infrastructure across the country.
Its General Manager Public Affairs Khalid Emele said it was part of efforts by the government to address the challenge of poor communication.
According to Emele, the ongoing programme is to ensure that communication challenges experienced by pilots in some parts of the airspace is eliminated.
He said to boost the clarity of radio communication, especially at the upper airspace, the agency has taken steps to replace all the Very High Frequency (VHF) radios at the existing eight remote sites in Lagos, Kano, Wukari, Sokoto, Ilorin, Port Harcourt, Abuja and Maiduguri.
He said the agency has also added six new sites in Jos, Kaduna, Yola, Enugu, Benin and Calabar, bringing to 14 VHF sites nationwide.
These VHF remote sites, he said, are operated in a network, which will have signal pattern that covers the entire airspace.
Emele said the agency has also taken delivery of the VHF radio equipment under the “Extended Range VHF Coverage” project, affirming that its installation will start soon.
He said in 2018, NAMA deployed four stand-alone Jotron High-power long range VHF radios at Lagos East and Lagos West as well as Kano East and Kano West Area Control Centres (ACCs).
He said it was a backup solution aimed at addressing Remote Control Air to Ground (RCAG) communication challenges in the upper airspace by providing reliable backup in the event of loss of VHF radio communication on the main system.
He said: “Plans have been completed to extend the range of the above-stated long-range backup radios and is only awaiting the passage of 2019 budget by the National Assembly for the implementation to commence. When completed, the backup radios would also have sufficient overlap of propagated signals to cover the entire airspace.
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