NAMA To Install Category 3 ILS In Three Airports

The Federal Government, through the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), has concluded plans to install Category 3 Instrument Landing System (ILS) in three airports in the country to improve air safety in the aerodromes.

The acting Managing Director of NAMA, Mr. Lawrence Pwajok, who disclosed this listed the airports to benefit from the air safety tools as Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano, Port-Harcourt International Airport, and the Katsina Airport.

Instrument Landing System (ILS) is a radio navigation system that provides short-range guidance to aircraft to allow them to approach a runway at night or in bad weather.

In its original form, it allows an aircraft to approach until it is 200 feet (61 m) over the ground, within a half-mile (800 m) of the runway.

At that point, the runway should be visible to the pilot; if it is not, they perform a missed approach. Bringing the aircraft this close to the runway dramatically improves the weather conditions in which a safe landing can be made. Later versions of the system, or “categories,” have further reduced the minimum altitudes.

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Pwajok said the move would increase the number of the airports that had Category 3 ILS in the country to five.

According to him, an instrument landing system is a piece of navigational equipment that provides lateral guidance for an aircraft, sky guidance for the aircraft, and longitudinal guidance for the aircraft when coming into landing.

“Navigational facility is one of the very critical requirements for access into an airport safely, efficiently, and economically. We place a very high premium on the procurement and installation of navigational equipment.

“Over the last five years, we have deployed significantly a large number of navigational equipment. I can go through some of them by justifying my statement.

“Currently, we have installed what we call Category 3 Instrument Landing System (ILS), in Lagos and Abuja. We are also planning to install additional ones in Kano, Port Harcourt, and Katsina,“ he said.

The NAMA boss, who explained that Category 3 landing system was the highest category for landing facility anywhere in the world, said that the government was set to invest heavily to ensure all the nation’s international airports had it. Pwajok said that the lighting system would complement Category 3.

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He said that a Category 3 approach system was required to guide the pilot using the instrument landing system. “Currently, we have installed an instrument landing system of Category 2 that requires what we call low visibility operations. “In operation, where the visibility is below 800 meters and not lower than 300 meters, we use what we call a Category 2 instrument landing system

“For a Category 1 instrument landing system, which is few, you need 800 meters visibility or more.

“That is, visibility must be about 1km (1000m) for you to be able to do a Catigory1 landing system, the lowest of the three categories.

“For Category 3, when the aircraft and the flight crew are adequately certified for it, with the visual lighting system available, you can basically land in zero visibility,“ he said.

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He said that Category 2 ILS was currently being installed in Ilorin, Ibadan, and Akure. According to him, some state airports such as Gombe, Kebbi, Bayelsa, and Anambra had already installed Category 2 ILS.

The NAMA boss said the airport in Lafia, which also had Category 2 ILS, had not been opened; had not yet been commissioned.

Pwajok said Categroy1 was in very few airports, adding that the government had planned to replace them with Category 2 ILS

 

“We have other equipment that will bring aircraft to the airport and we call them Very High-Frequency Omni-Directional Range (VOR), a ground-based electronic system that provides information for high and low altitude routes and airport approaches.

“The VOR is like a broadcast station. It transmits information. Unlike radio stations where you tune and hear music. For this navigational facility, when you tune, it gives you directional guidance.

Wole Shadare