National Association of Air Traffic Engineers (NAAE) has insisted that the Nigerian airspace is safe for flying, saying that anybody with any contrary opinion to this is misleading the public.
Engineer Ebenezer Makanjuola, NAAE’s president, told aviation journalists at the Murtala Mohammed Mohammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos that the management of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) has over the years improved the navigational equipment in the country’s airspace and beyond.
The National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) an umbrella body of Air Traffic Controllers, ATC, has consistently raised alarm over the safety of the country’s airspace.
NATCA has continually challenged the Federal Government to invest more money in the Communications and Surveillance, gadgets across the country.
Victor Enyaru, NATCA’s president, had declared that Communication and Navigation Surveillance, CNS, and Air Traffic Management, ATM, facilities nationwide were yet to be improved upon over the years.
But speaking in Lagos, Makanjuola reiterated that the equipment installed in the various airports across the country met international standards and assured the travelling public of a very safe airspace.
He insisted that no air crash in the country in the last 20 years had been traceable to equipment failure, stressing that if the equipment were not of international standards, crashes would have been attributed to the malfunction of the equipment.
On the Total Radar Coverage of Nigeria, TRACON, project, Makajuola explained that since the equipment was installed over three years ago, pilots had not complained about its efficiency and performance, insisting that the equipment was perfect and dependable.
He however agreed that there might be hitches in the system, but it was not enough to say the airspace was not safe.
He said, “No one has ever complained about the TRACON project. If the users do not complain, who are we to do so? I can tell you as an engineer that the TRACON is perfect, good and reliable. With the system, you can see an aircraft as far as Niger, Chad and even Ghana. TRACON is not equipment that will keep the aircraft in the air or control its performance.
“The WGS84 project is completed and as a result is providing Performance Based Navigation, PBN. PBN is available in 22 airports. It enables aircraft system performance to be defined in terms of accuracy, integrity, availability, continuity and functionality required for all operations in the Nigerian airspace, supported by appropriate navigational infrastructure.
“To provide seamless communication between pilots and ATC, data transfer from one point to the other in split seconds and satellite support both active and redundant at 99.9 per cent availability, the agency has taken delivery of Aeronautic Information Service Automation facilities for 27 airports and our members are fully equipped with necessary skills for this provision.”
He however said that safety is everybody’s business, stressing that safety is all encompassing and it involves agencies like NAMA, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, the Accident Investigation Bureau and even the airlines in the sector.