LAAC Calls for Increased Surveillance @ Airports

League of Airport and Aviation Correspondents (LAAC) has made a case for increased surveillance at Airports across the country to curb pilfering.

LAAC also warned that terrorism is a clear and present danger which remains the greatest challenge to aviation safety.

Rising from the 19th edition of the League of Airport and Aviation Correspondents seminar in Lagos, the group challenged aviation security personnel to be more vigilant at all times as “these deadly men are evolving new ways of beating security.”

In the communique issued by the League, the gathering also advocated for inter-agency sharing of information at the airports and that the provision of several explosive detector equipment and body scanner machines at major airports would not achieve much without the cooperation of security operatives and the other stakeholders in the nation’s aviation industry.

Participants also discussed pilfering at the airports saying it had become an embarrassment. They urged the authorities to improve surveillance of luggage. They also urged passengers to keep their eyes on the luggage.

The attendees appealed to the ground handling companies to secure passengers’ luggage and ensure that they collect them with dispatch at the baggage collection

The participants also brought the issue of personnel in the aviation industry to the discussion table saying human resources would require the leadership to have a modern aviation in Nigeria where there would be safer skies, modern airports, autonomous civil aviation regulator, low-cost carriers, and strong project matrix environment to actualise plans, among others.

They also identified safety challenges such as accidents and incidents caused by safety gaps that could snowball into security issues through human errors.

Besides, they underscored the importance of journalists in the dissemination aviation and related information and urged them to ensure accurate reporting of the aviation industry and avoid sensational headlines as they are capable of doing a lot of damage to the industry.

They maintained that aviation is the most regulated industry in the world and depends heavily on effective and meaningful communication to thrive.

They frowned that most times the kind of communication passed to the public through the media are taken from the negative angles.

They urged aviation correspondents to understand the working and structure of the aviation industry better to be able to report its activities from a professional point of view saying inadequate understanding of the sector would affect the quality of reports.

Nevertheless, they submitted that journalists have a greater role to play to grow the aviation industry.

The participants however agreed that the journalists were not taken care of by the aviation agencies.

They felt strongly that since the newsmen were evicted ignominiously from the press centre at the presidential wing of the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos early 2011, aviation agencies had been reluctant to get them an alternative accommodation within the airport.

They condemned a situation in which journalists are neglected and made to practice their trade with difficulty.