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Louis Ibah
At peak travel periods, about 15- 20 aircraft takeoff and land at both the domestic and international wings of the Murtala Muhammed Airport (MMA) Lagos.
Ever wondered how these aircraft trafficking into the Lagos airport are kept from colliding with each other given that aircraft are constructed in a way that makes it very difficult for pilots to see beyond what is directly in front of them? It is indeed very difficult for pilots to see what’s flying above or below them. Pilots also confess to the difficulty in making judgements as it relates to the measurement of distances while cruising on a certain altitude based on sounds of objects (like flying aircraft) that are either above, below, or in front of them.
Work of Air Traffic Controllers
The task of managing the challenges associated with flying through a particular airspace falls on Air Traffic Controllers (ATC), who usually rely on communication, navigational and radar facilities cited at airports, the Control Towers, airport runways,, taxiways, and various locations along the mapped aircraft flight paths to guide pilots navigate safely from airport to another.
It is to the credit of ATCs that the movement of thousands of aircraft over-flying the skies around the world are coordinated from take-off to landing. Even after take-off, they are kept at safe distances (usually between 1,000 to 2,000 feet) from each other to avoid collision in the sky. ATCs also direct pilots to navigate around bad weather, and during landing at airports they coordinate aircraft to land on runways safely.
As noted earlier and because safety is of prime focus in aviation, communication methods such as radar facilities to monitor flying aircraft and wireless radio are an effective way for ATCs and aircraft pilots to communicate.
The Nigerian challenge
At the recent breakfast meeting organised by the Aviation Safety Round Table Initiative (ASRTI) in Lagos, participants noted efficiency in the country’s air navigation and air traffic services infrastructure and human capital. In fact, some pilots flying the Nigerian airspace who spoke at the event complained about the communication challenges they encounter daily in the course of their jobs.
A pilot with Med-View Airline, Capt. Stephen Fevrier, said pilots are operating in an unsafe airspace in the country due to poor communication infrastructure.
“We are tired of managing the airspace; every day we go out, it’s about managing. I can’t speak to Lagos. We have become accustomed to it. We are actually in a sick environment,” said Fevrier.
He said when flying from Lagos to Abuja, pilots often lose contact with the Lagos control tower 200 miles into the airspace. He also said the situation is the same situation between Port Harcourt and Abuja. In Kano, if you are coming from Jeddah to enter Nigerian airspace, you can’t speak to Kano. You have to wait until you get into 100 miles into Kano most times.I must say that the airspace is still congested and unsafe for pilots to fly,” said Fevrier.
The same view was shared by the Safety Manager of Arik Air, Capt. Jide Bakare, who identified poor communication as the biggest challenge to Nigerian pilots.
“There are so many issues but communication is one of the biggest challenges that we face as pilots in Nigerian airspace,” he said.
In his contribution, the former Nigeria Airways pilot, Capt. Prekeme Porbeni, said, “repeatedly we kept on hearing, “we have Total Radar Coverage”, but it’s not about any aeroplane or airborne machine flying in (to) the Nigerian airspace being detected, but there is lack of communication between the pilots in the airspace and the air traffic controllers at the towers,” said Porbeni.
NAMA’s response
The Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) however assures airlines and other airspace users that the nation’s airspace is safe for seamless and economic air navigation.
According to its Managing Director/CEO, Capt. Fola Akinkuotu the agency had taken drastic steps to tackle communication challenges especially in the upper airspace in the past couple of years, with significant progress made in that direction.
Akinkuotu explained that NAMA had invested massively in the upgrading of communication infrastructure in the country to boost safety in the airspace.
Radio communication in the ground control, covering 65 nautical miles at the 32 air traffic control units in Nigerian airports is perfect, said Akinkuotu. In the same vein, he said communication in the tower control also covering 65 nautical miles and critical for landing and takeoff of aircraft is working perfectly in all the 32 airports in the country.
The “approach communication,” covering up to 130 nautical miles, according to him, is also working perfectly in all the 32 air traffic control units in the country.
Akinkuotu however admitted that although the Area Control or Upper Airspace Communication infrastructure may have a few challenges, which he attributed to the creation of new routes, he assured that concerted efforts were being made to address these challenges, one of which was the deployment of the Total VHF Coverage of Nigeria which he said was limited by the architecture of 8 VHF remote radio stations deployed in 2010. Akinkuotu said NAMA had just taken delivery of Extended Range VHF radio systems to replace old the radios in eight remote sites while six more are to be added, making them 14 even as there are ongoing plans to bring on stream the Aeronautical Information Services Automation project.
“This project has lingered through all the regimes in NAMA but we are currently making efforts to see to the final takeoff of the automation project which we believe would boost our communication system,” Akinkuotu said.The NAMA boss said that in line with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Aviation System Block Upgrade (ASBU), which stipulates that Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs) provide alternative means of communication, the agency in 2015 deployed the Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Contract/Controller Pilot Data Link Communication (ADS-C/CPDLC) in Kano and Lagos Area Control Centres (ACCs) to decongest radio frequency, saying that the facility was up and running in the entire airspace.
The Aviation Round Table however demands that the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority be proactive and innovative towards airspace regulation, as weakness or failure of a regulatory body leads to many incidents in the industry warning that it is the accumulation of incidents that ultimately leads to air accidents.
