NCAA Alerts Pilots, Others On ‘Hazardous Weather’

The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), has issued a weather advisory circular to the industry and demanded strict compliance.

It called the attention of pilots and operators to the occurrence of thunderstorm phenomenon over Nigerian airports since the onset of the rainy season in the country.

According to the circular by the Director-General/CEO, Capt. Musa S. Nuhu, the statistics from the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) so far indicated that most of the airports have recorded quite a number of thunderstorms between March and July 2020.

The DG, however, noted that severe thunderstorms and many other hazardous weather phenomena such as severe turbulence, microburst, low level wind shear and hail events could affect the safety of flight operations during the rainy season.

According to him, flight crews/operators and Air Traffic Controllers (ATC) shall ensure adherence to aerodrome weather minima.

He said, “Pilots shall exercise maximum restraint whenever adverse weather is observed or forecast by NIMET.

“Pilot/flight crew members shall obtain adequate departure, en-route and destination weather information and briefing from NIMET aerodrome meteorological offices prior to flight operations.”

It will take another one week to reopen other airports — NCAA

It may take the next one week for all the remaining airports to reopen for commercial operations, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has said.

The Director-General of the apex regulatory agency, Capt. Musa Nuhu who spoke Tuesday night at a webinar on the review of Aviation restart, however, said before the end of Wednesday, four more airports might be approved.

He said although all the other airports were expected to reopen on Tuesday as earlier announced by the Federal Government, it came with a caveat which was fulfilling the requirements for their reopening.

The DG said the NCAA inspectors were expected to visit some of the airports on Tuesday but they were stuck in Calabar, Cross River State due to bad weather.

He disclosed that Calabar, Benin, Yola and Kaduna airports might be approved on Wednesday while the inspection team would visit Katsina, Sokoto, Kebbi, Ilorin on Thursday

According to him, it would be the turn of Akure and Ibadan on Friday. Nuhu also disclosed that some state-run airports like Gombe would also be inspected and approved for flights if they satisfied the requirements especially the public health protocols.

Six airports have been reopened for flights starting with Lagos and Abuja on Wednesday; followed by Kano, Port Harcourt, Owerri and Maiduguri on Saturday.

The DG who briefed stakeholders on the industry restart during the virtual meeting said it has been so far, so good since the flights resumed.

He said the NCAA divided its inspection team into two to visit all the airports and assess their readiness for restarting, saying, “in order to do thorough jobs, we can’t do more than two airports in a day.”

“It will take one week to get all the airports open,” the DG said, advising airlines to contact the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) on the status of any airport before they start selling tickets for the airport.

“Let’s proceed with caution. We should not misinform the public. Before you start advertising or arranging flights, contact FAAN to confirm which airports are open before selling tickets,” he added.