The management of Nigerian Airspace Management Agency(NAMA)has reassured Nigerians and all airspace users especially pilots and other stakeholders on the safety of the country's airspace.
The assurance given by the Managing Director of the Agency, Mazi Nnamdi Udoh at a press briefing in Lagos came against the backdrop of a news item in one of the newspapers which claimed that Air Traffic Controllers have raised alarm over unsafe airspace.
Mazi Udoh who noted that there was no iota of truth in the said story explain that there was no agency or organisation that has no challenge in certain aspect of its operation and that the ability to tackle the challenge[s] was what mattered.
In NAMA, he said there had been challenges in the past and that was why his management embarked on several safety-critical projects, one of which included the Total VHF Radio Coverage of the Nigerian airspace.
To this end, he disclosed that the project has been successfully completed and the deliverables of the project provided VHF radio services on the following frequencies for both Lagos and Kano Area Control Centers[ACCs] :Lagos East-127.3 MHz; Lagos West-120.9MHz; Kano West- 128.5MHz and KanoEast-124.1MHz.
Saying that it was a fabrication of lies to blackmail the Agency for anybody to say that pilots were flying 'blind' within the airspace, Engineer Udoh noted that :'' These frequencies are performing at optimum but for operational reasons in the past, the Lagos ACC was not sectorized. However, with the growing traffic especially at peak period, the main Lagos ACC frequency-127.3, had become congested with attendant challenges.''
The Agency, he added in its typical proactive manner commenced the process of sectorization of the Lagos ACC and based on projected timelines of 17,December,2012, the Lagos ACC would have been completely sectorized.
Currently, Mazi Udoh said a team of Air Traffic Controllers and Engineers were working on the technical and operational implementation of the sectorization which included but not limited to-drawing of procedures, gap analysis and safety audits of the process.
Preparatory to the sectorization, he said that,:''test calls were made on 120.9MHz to several aircraft and it is cheering to say that the results have been perfect with no distortion in readability. The success recorded should put to rest the challenge of congestion in the airspace''.
Furthermore, to this is the Agency's medium term plan of implementation of Controller Pilot Data Link Communication(CPDLC) of which its 3-year Impact Plan would see to the realization of the plan by second quarter of next year.
He concluded,:'' We have taken the bold steps to nip in the bud this campaign of calumny because it impacts on the nation negatively and we would further use this moment to reassure all stakeholders that the situation is definitely not what is portrayed by mischief makers''
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