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By Chinelo Obogo
The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has apologised over the failure of the runway 06/24 edge light at the Mallam Aminu Kano Airport, Kano to light up, which led to the diversion of the two Kano bound aircraft at the weekend.
The agency in a statement signed by Director, Public Affairs and Consumer Protection, Abdullahi Yakubu-Funtua, however said that night operations have resumed as new cables were installed on Sunday leading to restoration of all runway lights before commencement of night operations.
Yakubu-Funtua explained that on July 15, 2023 at about 1600hrs, the airfield maintenance team of FAAN observed that the runway lighting would not come on after the scheduled daily maintenance work of replacing old and weak Airfield cables with new one’s at runway 06/24.
“On July 15, 2023 at about 1600hrs, the airfield maintenance team of FAAN observed that the runway lighting would not come on after the scheduled daily maintenance work of replacing old and weak airfield cables with new ones at runway 06/24.
“The maintenance team immediately initiated fault finding procedures along the cable route to identify the problem and restore power to the airfield lighting circuit. It was however observed that the entire runway circuit was affected, leading to the failure of the runway 06/24 edge light, the taxiway alpha edge light, PAPI and signage.
“As at 1900hrs local time, the fault had yet to be isolated and power supply to the runway could not be restored leaving the runway in total blackout which affected night operations. Arriving flights had to be diverted to alternate airports.
“At 2300hrs, after all efforts to restore power supply to the runway failed, operations department initiated a NOTAM action for the closure of runway 06/24 between the hours of 2300hrs on July 15th to 07:00hrs of July 16th, 2023. FAAN regrets any inconvenience caused by the diversion of the two Kano bound aircraft to Lagos, due to the unserviceability of the runway lights of runway 06/24.
“Night operations has since resumed as new cables were installed on Sunday, July 16, 2023 leading to restoration of all runway lights before commencement of night operations,” Yakubu-Funtua said.
