Terrible conditions of control towers’, radio communications worry Air traffic chiefs
Control towers at Kaduna, Maiduguri, Ilorin, Yola, Sokoto, Benin, and Katsina Airports have been described as very deplorable with poor radio communication capable of breaching flight safety, the Nigerian Air Traffic Controllers’ Association (NATCA) has warned.
Rising from its recent seminar in Lagos, the group called for immediate attention to restore acceptable safety limits in the named airports to avoid disasters’.
In his remarks, President of NATCA, Abayomi Agoro, decried that the states of the named airports control towers and radio communication ecosystem are not getting even better by the day.
While regretting that the recent collapse of Abuja Tower Elevator remains a sore point in Nigeria’s aviation industry, Agoro revealed that “Even more worrisome is its health hazard to ATCs, who go through agony climbing 232 flights of stairs on a daily basis.”
“Besides, the poor communication in commercial flight operations, between the pilot in the cockpit, and controllers in the tower, poses grim consequences and better unimagined than experienced.
NATCA boss disclosed further that “The present Controller-Pilot VHF Communication coverage of Nigeria’s airspace is a far cry from the required international standard, but it is still work in progress with the Nigeria Airspace Management Agency (NAMA). Over the years, it has been quite herculean for Air Traffic Controllers to communicate effectively with pilots.”
However, NATCA linked the sorry state of several airports and mainly the named ones to dwindling revenue access to the Nigeria Aviation Management Agency (NAMA) since recently.
