NiMET to explore alternative surveillance system in airports
By Tobi Adetunji
The Director-General of Nigerian Meteorological Agency, a parastatal of the Federal Ministry of Aviation, Prof. Mansur Matazu said the government has declared that it is coming up with security alternative monitoring system of low level wind shear beyond using sensors.
Prof. Mansur Matazu, said this during the second symposium of the Nigerian Aviation Workforce Safety with the theme ‘Mitigating/preventing the adverse impact of windshield occurrences in Nigerian airspace.’
During the event, experts in the aviation sector challenged the Federal Government to adopt home-made solutions to mitigate the effects of climate change on aviation safety in the country.
According to Matazu, climate change has a wide range of consequences for aviation safety.
He said, “The few challenges we are experiencing basically is vandalisation of some of the sensors located in remote locations within the airport premises or beyond the perimeter.
“Recently, we attended a town hall meeting alongside the minister on how to sensitize the public to stop vandalizing sensors because some of these instruments look very simple in the bush but they play critical roles in the aviation industry.
“For each airport, we have ten sensors, we are coming up with security implementation of some of the recommendations by security outfit that conducted vulnerability survey of the sensors and we are involving the communities to help us engage the locals to help us safeguard the installations.”
Matazu said prevention of wind shear occurrence was beyond human technological thrust, saying it took scientists and industry experts a great deal of effort to understand the complexity of wind shear phenomenon.
He explained that early warning and detention mechanisms had proven to be the only dependable solution to the hazards of wind shear, adding that pilots’ awareness of its existence before landing or take-off enables them to make maneuvers in order to avoid the impact of wind shear.
The aviation experts said a few of the consequences included wind shear, increasing global temperature, flooding and storm tides, sand and dust storm in the domestic context as well as jet stream and airframe icing at global aviation arena.
The Director-General, Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, Capt. Musa Nuhu, said a multi-disciplinary research effort was ongoing by scientists, engineers and other stakeholders to understand better the impacts of climate change on the entire aviation system, including aircraft and infrastructure.
He said effort was also underway to produce a dedicated guidance material targeted at climate adaptation to support the risk management activities of all stakeholders, including operators and pilots, airport managers, aircraft manufacturers, governments and regulators.
He stressed the need for installation of terrestrial and satellite broadcasting sound and television systems and different mobile radio communication systems that warn aircraft pilots of storms and turbulence as well as the public of dangerous weather events.
Earlier, the Chief Executive Officer of Accident Investigation Bureau, Akin Olateru, explained that the symposium was convened to strengthen the Nigerian aviation safety management system and to continually assess preparative action plans to mitigating the impact of unusual meteorological conditions and climate change on aviation safety.
Olateru said that evidences from past and recent aircraft accidents and incidents in Nigeria had been strongly associated with weather and meteorological conditions, amongst which wind-shear was a great cause for concern.
