Infrastructure decay threatens air safety

• EU’s communication gift degenerated

Failure by the Federal Government in the past to consolidate safety arrangement in Nigeria’s airspace by maintaining and installing necessary infrastructure is gradually culminating into fear and generating concerns.

To make the airspace safer, according to findings by our correspondent, Federal Government may have to cough up several billions of dollars to provide the necessary facilities.

In a chat with Woleshadarenews, the Managing Director of Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), Capt. Fola Akinkuotu, said that the Agency was at the verge of rectifying many of the teething problems associated with the airspace.

The NAMA chief disclosed that investment in the past by successive administrations were not sufficient to provide some of the basic needs for airspace infrastructure.

Although Akinkuotu did not give the exact amount of money needed to provide the facilities, he, however, said: “The equipment we need is in billions of dollars. Key aspect of NAMA’s job is communications, navigation and surveillance.

“Let us look at communications. Many years ago, I think the European Union gave us a satellite communication system. That was many years ago. We didn’t do anything about it. We did not expand it but traffic expanded, equipment degenerated. So, what should we do? The question you need to ask is if we need satellite communication? The answer is yes.”

The means of communication today that is considered reliable in terms of clarity, according to Akinkuotu, is Very High Frequency (VHF) radio even though it has its limitations. He stressed that it was restricted in a nutshell by what it is called line of sight.

To him, line of sight will have obstacles like buildings, mountains natural and man-made obstructions.

He further disclosed that the agency had been able to propagate them with Very-small-aperture terminal (VSAT), noting that what they were given by European Union was not enough for NAMA’s today’s business.

“The equipment does not come cheap. VSATs are the enabling infrastructure to bounce the radios off. We still need the ground facilities. We are in the process of extended VHF communication. That is a huge cost on itself. Then you look at navigation, someone asked me where the roads in the airways? I said to the person that the roads are there. Airways are ways on means between ground based and satellite based. They are about two navigational aids that are established. As you have high traffic you have to have more airways so that you reduce conflicts,” he added.

Akinkuotu admitted that the nation’s airspace was safe despite what people might want to say, hinting that either by act of providence or by God enabling people to do the right things or by people doing the right things, the country did not witness accident in the past six years.

He stated that government policies were being implemented by the agencies leading to about six accident free years, which he said was some good things about the airspace.

According to him, “in life, I have never subscribed to half measures; we strive for perfection in everything that we do in life. When I look at the airspace, is it safe, the answer is yes. Can it be safer? Yes. Don’t forget that the dynamics have changed from time to time. May be 50 years ago, what we clamour about now in Nigeria is the type of traffic we have now that wasn’t there.

“Everybody has a car. A larger number of people have cars. We have to make provision either by expanding the roads, changing the network, having flyovers, having highways; these are the things that show that traffic has increased. The same thing will happen with skies. Fifty years ago, there was only one major airline.

“Many years ago, we had Instrument Landing System (ILS) Category One. Later we upgraded to ILS category two, they said they were not happy about it. We now have ILS category three. These are through the hard work we have put in air safety. We have different machines, different surveillance system. The challenge is how are going to protect ourselves from drones? That is the challenge.”

He stated that the agency had to do something to mitigate things that will not impugn on safe sky in terms of remote pilots airplane system, otherwise known as drones.

Wole Shadare