Nigerian Airspace Is Safe -Traffic Engineers

The National Association
of Air Traffic Engineers (NAATE), has reassured that the Nigerian airspace is safe for flying as anybody with contrary view is targeted at misleading the public.
Speaking to newsmen at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, the President of NAATE, Mr Ebenezer Makanjuola, said the authority of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) has improved the navigational equipment in the country’s airspace and beyond.
The National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) an umbrella body of Air Traffic Controllers has consistently raised alarm over the safety of the country’s airspace. NATCA has continually challenged the federal government to invest more money in the communications and surveillance equipment for improved airspace.
Mr Makanjuola countered this claim, declaring that the equipment installed in the various airport across the country met international standards and assured the travelling public of a very safe airspace.
He insisted that no air crash in the country in the last 20 years had been traceable to equipment failure, stressing that if the equipment were not of international standards, crashes would have been attributed to the malfunction of the equipment and facilities used to manage the airspace.
On the Total Radar Coverage of Nigeria, (TRACON), project, Makanjuola explained that since the equipment was installed over three years ago, pilots had not complained about its efficiency and performance, insisting that the equipment was perfect and dependable.
He, however, agreed that there might be hitches in the system, saying that was not enough to say the airspace is unsafe.
“No one has ever complained about the TRACON project. If the users do not complain, who are we to do so? I can tell you, as an engineer, that the TRACON is perfect, good and reliable. With the system, you can see an aircraft as far as Niger, Chad and even Ghana. TRACON is not equipment that will keep the aircraft-in the air or control its performance,” TRACON said.
“The World Geodetic Survey 84 (WGS84) project is completed and as a result is providing performance Based Navigation (PBN). PBN  is available in 22 airports. It enables aircraft system performance to be defined in terms of accuracy, integrity, availability, continuity and functionality required for all operations in the Nigerian airspace supported by appropriate navigational infrastructure,” Makanjuola added.
It explained that to provide seamless communication between pilots and ATC, there is usually data transfer from one point to the other in split seconds and satellite support both active and redundant at 999 per cent availability.
“The agency has taken delivery of Aeronautic Information Service Automation facilities for 27 airports and our members are fully equipped with necessary skills for this provision,” he said.
He, however, said safety is everybody’s business, stressing that safety is all encompassing and it involves agencies like NAMA, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) the Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) and even the airlines in the sector.