roles that guide aircraft movements on the ground, while airborne, as well as play an immense role in a safe landing. But with poor infrastructure, poor welfare, personnel burnout and deaths right behind the controls, air travel in the country is perhaps getting riskier than we all know. WOLE OYEBADE reports.
About an hour later, an evacuation vehicle arrived, but aviation security personnel allegedly barred it from entering the highly restricted airside in fulfilment of administrative bureaucracy. In very simple terms, Air Traffic Control Officers simply work to avert a collision, organise and expedite the flow of air traffic, and provide information and other support services for pilots to have safe travels. Doing this is one of the most complicated tasks, as it involves a network of operations.
“It has always been a running battle to get NAMA to provide basic facilities for its workers. The Kaduna Airport does not have a control tower. What they are using is a watch room for firefighters. It was not built for that purpose , and we have been calling on the government to do something. In Sokoto, once it rains, controllers need umbrellas to sit in the control tower to work.
Said he: “I have seen and heard of pilots that are flying blind and deaf in parts of our airspace; no communication whatsoever. When it rains in Lagos, for instance, you lose radio communications after 200 nautical miles. Yes, the Controller Pilot Data Link Communications is available, but you always hear them saying, ‘we have problems logging on.’ Sadly, that is where we are now.
“As a pilot, you will often hear the controller shouting things like, ‘Oga, where is the radar control?’ They were not properly trained before coming to the tower. The extra 10 to 20 minutes of fuel usage, who is going to pay for it? These are the issues.”GEORGE Nkambo, ATC communicator, who monitors aircraft movement and communicates with pilots via radio, also decried equipment and personnel shortfall that have made efficient services almost impossible.
Besides fixing the equipment, he also urged NAMA to address the shortage of manpower in the department, just as he observed that his unit has about 300 personnel deficits, which are needed to complement the 176 on the ground to cover airports nationwide effectively.
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