THE managing director of Centurion Security Services, Group Captain John Ojikutu (retired) has commended the organisers of the recently held cargo conference, Mr Ikechi Uko and the Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) for further exposing the ongoing vandalism and failures of some critical safety equipments at the airports.
Such equipment being vandalised include; wind shear censors, Doppler weather radar and Instrument Landing Systems (ILS) which are critical to safe flight operations.
Doppler weather radar which is used to locate precipitation, calculate its motion and estimate its type like a thunderstorm, can measure how fast rain or storm is moving towards or away from the radar.
Each time the Doppler weather radar is vandalised, the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMET), an agency of government responsible for installing it around the airports spend a whopping N55 million to replace the vandalised one.
The director general of NiMET, Professor Matazu had last week raised the alarm on how safety equipment were regularly being vandalised across the country, while the affected agencies spend millions of naira monthly to replace the damaged or vandalised equipment.
The menace of vandalism of the components were debated by various stakeholders at the cargo conference organised by Ikechi Uko, the publisher of ATQ Magazine and organiser of the annual Akwaaba Travel Market on the one hand, and the review of accident reports organised by the AIB.
According to Ojikutu, “Without them, we would have continued to go along in cycles until something catastrophic happens. These are critical equipment for providing safety services to air traffic; ask those responsible for providing these critical services, how long has the stealing been going on and who in the airport did they report to? In Port Harcourt, only three out of ten wind sheers censors were said to be left on the runway; Port Harcourt airport is one airport that has recorded more than six serious air incidents during landing as reported by the AIB investigations.
“Safety recommendations were made but how many of these recommendations have been implemented by the airport authority and the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) or enforced by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA)?
“For me, these and the absence of airfield lightnings on Lagos airport Runway 18L which has been there for over 13 years are very serious neglect by the responsible authorities. We all should blame ourselves if something ever goes wrong at any of these airports. It will not be out of ordinary if victims or relatives of victims of any serious incident or fatal accidents sue the agencies responsible for ensuring the serviceability of this equipment as a result of these failures.
Wondering when last the NCAA as the regulatory body for civil aviation in Nigeria conducted the required audits on the facilities including those being vandalised, Ojikutu declared “My worries are: when last did the responsible authority conduct the mandatory annual audits on these facilities and the service providers and what were the reports? More than six serious incidents occurred at Port Harcourt alone during landing within two years and safety recommendations were made but the recurring of the serious incidents should attract the attention of the NCAA, FAAN, NAMA and NIMET.
“The intervention fund that we cry for and seemed to be dolled to the airlines alone should be extended to the services providers too otherwise, with the reports coming out now, we may be heading into another critical period as we had in 2000/2007, God forbid.”
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