Lawmaker Tasks FG On Safety of Airport Equipment in Nigeria

Lawmaker Tasks FG On Safety of Airport Equipment
AllAfrica.com 
   
January 12, 2004 
 

The House Committee Sub-Chairman on the Nigerian Air
Space Agency, Hon Chidi Nwogu has asked the federal
government to expedite action in installing safety
equipments across airports in Nigeria to ensure safety
of passengers.

According to Nwogu who survived a near mid-air
collision of two passenger planes enroute Abuja
through Port Harcourt from Enugu on January 5, 2004
said that but for the anti collision apparatus of the
aircraft and the sharp reaction of the pilot,
passengers on the two aircrafts would have died that
day.

  
He therefore called on the federal government to speed
up action in the review of the Global positioning
system of the country, which would see to it that
modern equipment would be installed for the safety of
the nation's airspace.

Nwogu who said the Air Traffic controllers in the
country ought to explain why such avoidable mishaps
nearly took place and pressed for the reporting and
investigating such incidents when they occur rather
than hide them.

"That day, we had left Enugu Airport for Abuja through
Port Harcourt. Mid way to Port Harcourt, the anti
collision apparatus of the airplane came on and the
pilot had to react immediately by ducking in the air.
If we were unlucky and both aircrafts swerved to the
same side, we would have all died. It is a serious
issue that should be looked into.

"Usually, aero planes are separated by altitude but I
don't know what happened. For a big aircraft that
moves at about 8,000 kilometers per hour, it would
have collided within seconds of coming close to 1,000
meters of each other.

He said the problems of the sector was that equipment
purchased by the country are either obsolete at the
point of purchase or are obsolete by time of
installation which should be avoided.

The lawmaker from Imo state said it was unacceptable
that a busy airport like Enugu airport had no
instrument Landing System as the one there was said to
have been cannibalized to repair those in other
airports.

He warned that with the harmattan haze and poor
visibility against high air traffic in the country,
there was need to equip all airports with basic safety
instruments to avoid disasters.


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