Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) is to sustain its collaboration with the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) on strategic management of the country’s airspace to enhance the overall safety of both military and civil flights.
A high-powered delegation of the Nigerian Air Force which paid a courtesy visit to the Engr. Ibrahim Abdulsalam, managing director, in Lagos held crucial discussions with NAMA management on issues bordering on collaborative airspace management, civil-military coordination, training of Air Force officers by NAMA and the military radar which is the military equivalent of TRACON.
Comdr. Bello Garba, leader of the delegation and director of Air Traffic Services, explained that the visit was to strengthen the existing mutual relationship between the Nigerian Air Force and NAMA, stressing that “this synergy is particularly critical in view of the nation’s current security challenges”.
Garba who appreciated NAMA’s role in quelling the on-going insurgency in the North-Eastern part of the country solicited the agency’s assistance in the provision of technical expertise in the installation of a military radar and the needed capacity to man the equipment.
In his remarks, Engr. Ibrahim Abdulsalam, noted that the Nigerian Air Force has always been an ally of NAMA as the statutory role of the two organizations are complimentary, stressing that NAMA has always been at the forefront of the Civil-Military Coordination meeting.
Abdulsalam stated that the on-going multilateration project in the Gulf of Guinea would effectively capture low-level aircraft in the area including military helicopters.
He promised that NAMA would provide the Nigerian Air Force with the needed manpower training and technical information on the military radar and other logistics.
Meanwhile, seven representatives of NAMA drawn from the Search and Rescue Department at the weekend in Abuja participated in a live simulation exercise on air crash outside the vicinity of an Airport.
Organized by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), the exercise which took place at the National Fire Academy, Shada Abuja, was among other things, to demonstrate the nation’s preparedness in responding to air crash accidents as well as rescue coordination strategies outside the confines of an aerodrome.
Apart from NAMA, the event attracted representatives from other relevant agencies such as NEMA, The Nigerian Civil Aviation Agency (NCAA) and the Federal Road Safety Corps.