PILOTS and air traffic controllers had a difficult day as the Lagos airport radar developed faults yesterday, thereby forcing air traffic controllers to do their job manually.
A pilot who narrated his ordeal to The Guardian said he had to fly blindly when he realised that the radar was not functioning.
Some air traffic controllers also confirmed the development. They said the system indeed collapsed twice yesterday, thereby hampering the smooth control of traffic.
In a related development, the management of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) may have jettisoned the idea of training air traffic controllers at the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria, Kaduna State. Sources told The Guardian that the training would now take place in France.
This came as some air traffic controllers expressed support for the proposed flight cut scheduled to begin yesterday.
They told The Guardian that they supported the resolve of their colleagues to protest the “terrible working condition” they are currently subjected to.
They insisted that the action was taken to protest dearth of facilities at the nation’s airports, adding that the few facilities were over-stretched and obsolete.
The air traffic controllers also decried the authorities’ handling of matters affecting them.
Meanwhile, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has given assurance that the perimeter fencing of the nation’s four international airports would be completed before September 2006.
The authority, however, stated that it was waiting for the World Bank assistance to begin the project.
The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) had shortly after a Lufthansa aircraft ran into a herd of cow at the Port Harcourt International Airport, requested that all international airports in the country must be fenced before November 2006.
Managing director of FAAN, Mr. Olorunfemi Shittu, at the weekend told The Guardian that what was being done by FAAN was to make sure that all infrastructure were in place.
He noted: “What we are waiting for is the World Bank, and the World Bank has promised to bring money for the fencing of Port Harcourt Airport.
“We expect that very soon, the construction of that fence should start. I have no doubt that within three months, that fencing should be completed.”
He stated that for the Abuja airport, FAAN was expecting money from government, just as he rated the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport (MAKIA) Kano as the most secure of all airports in the country.
On the 18L runway of the Lagos airport under construction, Shittu explained that the authority would collect data for the design for its rehabilitation programme.
His words: “We need to have the topographical data of the runway. That clearly will tell us the current character of the runway, particularly as it relates to the surface and its condition.
“The second one is what is called the sub-oil/ pavement investigation of the runway. These are the two things, sets of data that we are trying to collect.”
He appealed to the Federal Government to bail the authority out of its present financial predicament, stressing that all airports infrastructure had gone through their life cycle “and they stand to be rehabilitated, replaced.”
“Something just needed to be added back to these infrastructure so that they can perform their primary functions of ensuring safety,” Shittu said.