Guardian

Nigeria’s airspace safety had come under the searchlight and it is one that gives stakeholders a lot of concern. Various groups had called on the Federal Government to tackle the deficiency gaps in communication between pilots and air traffic controllers during flight operations. In this interview with WOLE SHADARE, former member, Ministerial Committee on Airspace Safety, Group Captain John Ojikutu (rtd), said NAMA has a lot to do to achieve its goals. Excerpts:

SHORTAGE of manpower and the serviceability of equipment

When we were in the Ministerial Committee of Airspace Management after the Bellview and Sosoliso crash of 2005, one of the things we discovered on the Bellview crash was why the controllers search and rescue started from Ogbomosho, which was by flying time Lagos should have been about 15 to 20 minutes for an aircraft that lost radio contact three minutes after take-off, we felt there was something wrong.

If the radar had been on, it should have still been within the Lagos control zone area. So, we went into details to know what was happening. One of the things we discovered was that the radar was on but there was no controller there. Why was there no controller? It was because they did not have enough manpower to man the radar. And according to the evidence that time was that, they had controllers to man the system up till Fridays, so by Saturday, Sunday because they don’t have enough manpower, they leave that place empty, so, that was why it was not easy for search and rescue to have been able to catch up with the fact that this aircraft should not have gone as far as Ogbomosho, Oyo State if somebody was watching the radar, you would have known the point where the aircraft crashed and it would have been searched easily.

Everybody started walking on edge and rumour and former Aviation Minister, Babalola Borisade and others headed for Ogbomosho to search for the crashed Bellview whereas it crashed at our back yard here in Lisa, Ogun State. That is the problem. When we started, we discovered that they had a deficiency of 115 and not sure that up till now, they have been able to rectify them all. We are talking of 2006 and 2007, that was the period we sat and that was five years ago. If they started training anybody by that time from the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria, because we made so many proposition for them, which they did not do.

One of the things that bother me is our attitude to change that does not profit them and it’s going to profit some people, that is my problem with them. We came up with suggestion of what NCAT should do.  We don’t have the structures, the facilities there are down. Why don’t you start now, recruit people, send some of them to Egypt, Singapore, to South Africa so that in the next five years, because if you send them to NCAT, they are going to be there for two and half years. By the time they come out in two and half years, they have to be on the field and work on the field and for them to work independently, they probably would have been on the field for four to five year, so you are talking of about seven years to get professionals that would work independently. So, that is why I said I am not sure that they have been able to meet up those deficiencies by now.

They have some politicians among them that are benefitting and say they don’t know what you are talking about. These are areas we are talking about. These are the people querying me that I got my licence in 1973 and cast aspersions on people who dare to challenge them on the rot in air space management.

Some of them were not born then. The former Managing Director of Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), Ibrahim Auyo was my supervisor in Kano. The politics they do, which has led to the deficiencies are the things we saw s when we were in the committee. People, air traffic controllers whom they did not like because of the position they took over what was going on were posted to Sokoto, Maiduguri where there were no radars.

You can see the position (brandishing a position paper), which I sent to the president. They posted them to Maiduguri, Sokoto and we said, you don’t have sufficient radar controllers in Lagos and you are posting them to Sokoto and Maiduguri and that time, we discovered about ten or eleven of them that were posted.

Deficiencies of the radar

Those radars were terminal radars. Even this total radar coverage of Nigeria that is much publicised, no matter the language they give it is a terminal radar. That is the deception they give to the whole world, it is terminal radar. It is called terminal radar control (TRACON). They coined it to suite themselves and they called it Total Radar Coverage of Nigeria (TRACON). It is terminal radar control, open any air traffic control book, which is what it is. The radar in Lagos has a limit. What they did was this. They had about nine sites and four primary one in Lagos, Abuja, Kano and Port-Harcourt. All of them have their limitations. You cannot use radar without communication.

There are gaps between one radar and the other.

You have radar without communication to cover the whole place. We need to tell ourselves the truth in this country that people are putting people’s lives in danger.

At 62, some of us don’t need government job but I want to go to that airport and feel safe. When I see some of these things that are happening and look at it; you want to call them.

When they bought the safe tower and they were going to meet President Obasanjo to go and commission it, I stood on their way in Abuja. I was a member of the Presidential sub-committee.

By the time you go on and commission this thing, just like they made President Goodluck Jonathan to commission the radar. If an aircraft goes to Maiduguri today and it wants to take-off to enter the airspace controlled by Kano, if they cannot get Kano on air, the moment they get air borne, they will nearly get to Kano before they can establish communication with Kano, that is the danger.

There is deficiency, let them tell us there is deficiency. Let them put emphasis on training people. In that radar, they removed so many things. That radar we are talking about, they amended it three times. The first one, they removed the primary radar, the next one was to remove the training aspect of it, which was $4 million to train the controllers. The primary radar component was about $9 million, they removed it.

Poor quality of the radio communication system

That is what I am saying. These are the areas they needed to have addressed. Communication was a major problem way back in 2005 and 2006 and up till now, they have not been able to solve it.

The Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) signed a contract of communication in 2008 or 2009, up till today, not much has been done in that regard. Anything that has to do with safety, they seem not to be concerned about it. When the International Civil Organisations (ICAO) comes here, it does not want to see how beautiful your terminal building is, whether your conveyor belt is working, whether somebody is carrying load on his head or not, ICAO does not give a damn.

What ICAO bothers about is, what is the safety of passengers inside the aircraft? What is the safety of the passenger in the air? What is the facility you have put on the ground for the safety of the aircraft on the ground or in the air? Once the passenger is on ground and not inside the aircraft, it’s not ICAO business.

All these ones that the Federal Government is spending billions, they should call people who have money to come forward to invest. No matter the mistake they did on MMA2 with Babalakin’s Bi-Courtney, they could correct it. If they are not going to give it to Babalakin, give it to another Babalakin, give it to another Uwaifo, give it to another Tukur, let him build these terminals, give them the safety and security standards and allow the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to regulate it. That is what governments do everywhere. Investors not governments build all terminal buildings.

We don’t have communication. What you have is terminal radar and the radio that is there is only for the terminal. Then you ask them, what is the extent or reach of your terminal? Lagos terminal is about 120, 130 nautical miles and it has a limitation of height. There is always a gap between Lagos and Kano area communication wise. The pilots are complaining. So if an aircraft is coming from Kano, Kano area is controlling it, it becomes difficult for that aircraft, if it does not enter the range of Lagos radio properly for you to communicate, it becomes a very big problem. The pilots are complaining.

On Captain Benson Ikponwosa allegations on lack of inadequate infrastructure like the absence of Runway 18/Left lightings

It has always been there. I am surprised that people are talking about that runway now. This happened about six years ago. Some of us have talking about it. After Dana crash, I mentioned it. I saw the minister and Demuren in Abuja, the minister ran away. I mentioned it. I told them that peoples’ lives are in danger, because the luck we had was that the Dana crash did not happen inside the airport. If it had crashed on runway 18R, that would have closed the single runway. What that captain Ikponwosa said was the truth but they try to hide from it.

You want to taxi from the domestic wing to international wing, you are taxiing on runway that has no light, you are taxiing on the taxi way that has no light, operational vehicles are coming from MMA2 to the international wing, most of them without radio. When that aircraft is taxiing from the domestic wing to international runway on the maneuvering that has no light and a vehicle and aircraft are coming and the two of them start struggling on the taxiway, because the air traffic controller does not see what goes on there. He can only tell me he knows what goes on there if he tells me he has already acquired aerodrome surveillance radar that will look at every movement on the ground and we don’t have.

Ojikutu was a member, Ministerial Committee on Airspace safety and former Commandant, MMIA