Uzokwe's Searchlight

Talking about flying blind ... The near mishap of the governor of Akwa Ibom's airplane should be a wake up call for NAMA to live up to expectation. It is important that all aircrafts are subjected to the right level of scrutiny to ensure that they not only carry the necessary flying instrumentation, but are inspected frequently to ensure that all onboard instrumentation are functioning at all times.

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Monday, November 9, 2009



Alfred Obiora Uzokwe

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DANGER LURKING IN OUR SKIES

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nyone who has flown in an aircraft fully understands the stomach churning feeling that envelopes passengers whenever air turbulence ensues. I have had my share of that experience; I never liked it and from the way that other passengers react during such emergencies, some with deafening silence and others making the sign of the cross on their foreheads and chests, it is clear that no one ever gets used to mid air turbulence. During a trip my family made sometime ago, back to the US from Nigeria, as soon as the aircraft started swaying from side to side and dropping in altitude, the cabin that was hitherto a beehive of activities and chit chatting went silent. You could see people firmly gripping their seat handles every time the plane lurched upwards or downwards, as if that was going to be their saving grace should things really deteriorate.


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As the airplane continued its sea saw acrobatics, something of a drama was unfolding beside me. Two of my kids were alternately opening and closing the window next to them. My daughter would open the window but her brother would quickly nudge her hand away from the window and pull it shut again. This drama, which I could not understand, continued until I asked them to cut it out. It was much later, after the all clear sign came on, signaling that we had emerged unscathed from the turbulence, that I asked what the window struggle was all about. My son, who was doing the window-closing, lightheartedly quipped, "I just did not want to see where we would fall". At this time, my daughter countered, "I would not want us to fall into a body of water so I was curious to see if we were passing over one". As much as these were sentiments being expressed by kids, what they were saying represents the latent feeling that adults, and everyone at large, have when air turbulence ensues.

Bearing the above in mind, it was no surprise to me when, about a week ago, I read about the reaction of the passengers of a chartered aircraft that was conveying the governor of Akwa Ibom State from Calabar to Lagos. Here is how the incident was reported by the Director of Protocol of the state governor: "the aircraft took off at the Calabar Airport en route Port Harcourt to Lagos. As we were going above the airspace in Port Harcourt, which is the air route, we began to experience a sudden drop of about 5000 feet in a split of a second and from there problems started and we tried to go up and all to no avail. It was madness and everybody on board after that experience fell ill and the air hostess collapsed on the floor of the aircraft." [Daily Independent Online, October 31, 2009].

The surprise that this writer feels, about this incident, is not the fact that the aircraft lost 5000 ft of altitude in the split of a second. While abnormal, it does happen. Certainly, my surprise is not the fact that an airhostess, that should at least pretend to be strong in an emergency, so as not to heighten panic amongst the passengers, collapsed. Again, while that is not normal, she is certainly human and that may have been her first time in that type of situation. What is not normal is what caused the sudden drop in altitude of the aircraft. The co-pilot explained to the governor that the aircraft had a near collision with another aircraft that had just taken off from Calabar airport. "Sir", the co pilot had said to the governor, "while we were flying at about 24000 ft above sea level, there was an aircraft which was above us which was coming towards Calabar and on the same place in PH. The aircraft decided to descend, and it was descending right inside our aircraft. At about 400 meters to our aircraft", the co-pilot further explained, "we made a mad descent because the upcoming plane was a bigger one, and was faster than ours. We were once again advised to go up and in that process, the plane got stalled and we had a free fall until the engine came up again." [Daily Independent Online]

The questions to ask here are many but the most important one is this: Does this near- miss constitute an anomaly or is it something that pilots of aircrafts over our airspace have come to expect? Inotherwords, do airline passengers have to become concerned that every time they fly in our supposedly friendly skies, they are gambling with their lives? Is there a latent danger lurking in the skies over our beloved nation? As much as an accident was averted, many things could have gone wrong. A head-on collision could have occurred and lives lost in both crafts. Furthermore, the preemptive acrobatic maneuver that the pilot engaged in, to avoid the oncoming aircraft, wherein the plane dropped freely for 5000 feet, could have resulted in complete and irreversible stalling of the engine, inexorably leading to a crash and attendant loss of lives.

I would like to believe that our skies are completely safe but considering the near- miss stories we read about all the time and notable crashes like the Bellview aircraft crash in October 2005, the Sosoliso crash of December 2005 and the ADC flight 53 crash of October 2006, crashes that ended the lives of hundreds of Nigerians, one is truly concerned. My concern becomes even more heightened by the fact that the co-pilot of the plane ferrying the Akwa Ibom governor explained that a critical instrument that all aircrafts are supposed to have onboard, to detect impending collisions, are either lacking in some aircrafts or are not functional. Essentially, some of the pilots are flying blind! What is the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) doing about this malady or is the agency waiting for another crash before action? For the avoidance of doubt, this type of issue already caused an aircraft accident in Nigeria in November of 1996. The pilot of a Boeing 727 jet could not regain control of the jetliner after it took some maneuvers to prevent a mid air collision. The jet went down at Ejirin and took with it 143 lives! Now, is this what we want in the skies over Nigeria?

Talking about flying blind, it did not help matters that a few days before the incident involving the aircraft that the governor of Akwa Ibom was in, the chairman of the board of directors of NAMA, Alhaji Kawu Baraje, told Nigerians that the Total Radar Coverage of Nigeria (TRACON) project was 95% complete. This is a project meant to cover every inch of airspace with radar to make the skies safer. He explained that the era of pilots flying blind was over. Alhaji Baraje felt that he was breaking good news to Nigerians but he was actually alarming them when he indicated that some areas are yet to be covered. The question this brings up is whether any of the accidents or near-misses we hear of every day, over Nigerian air space, may have been the result of this radar insufficiency or gap? Is anyone investigating to find that out? Infact, with the way Nigeria operates, where the government gives assurances that never come to fruition, how can one even be sure that the 95% radar coverage assurance is much of an assurance to believe in? These questions need to be answered to ensure that Nigerians would have rest of mind as they board aircrafts in the country.

The near mishap of the governor's airplane should be a wake up call for NAMA to live up to expectation. It is important that all aircrafts are subjected to the right level of scrutiny to ensure that they not only carry the necessary flying instrumentation, but are inspected frequently to ensure that all onboard instrumentation are functioning at all times. Also, a very important part is pilot training for professional competence. Hiring a pilot from overseas does not automatically translate into competency. There are crappy pilots in Australia, USA, Britain, South Africa and the likes. Pilot records must be fully examined and needed flying hours reached before being unleashed into the Nigerian skies. Furthermore, the idea of a flight attendant collapsing is one for the records! It tells this writer that the flight attendant was not adequately prepared for the job. A flight attendant plays an invaluable role outside of food service. In most aircrafts disasters where some passengers have survived, there is always a correlation between the probability of survival and the stoic resolve of flight attendants to guide passengers. If a flight attendant has to collapse, what would the passengers do, all die before the mishap occurs? This reminds me of the story of a man that resolved to be present at the birth of his first child. When his wife went into labor, he was called into the labor room and asked to hold and encourage his wife. When the spasms began and the man's wife started groaning, he fainted and crumpled onto the floor. His wife had to ask the doctor, even though she was the one in labor, to go and take care of her husband first.

Flight attendants should be well trained to withstand the stress and help douse the tension in an aircraft cabin when things go awry. This writer has observed that as soon as there is sign of trouble in an aircraft, passengers start looking at the flight attendants for a clue regarding the seriousness of the event. If they look calm, that energy is translated into the passengers but if they look panicky, the passengers will panic too. A cool and calm attendant ensures that there is orderly evacuation in the event of a mishap and could mean saving of more lives.

Nigeria's Minister of Aviation, Babatunde Omotoba, has now put the blame of the near-miss on an Air Traffic controller. He explained that the Air Traffic Controller "mistakenly asked the two aircrafts involved to descend and ascend to the same 21,000 feet"[AllAfrica.com]. One hopes that this is not a case of passing the buck to a defenseless air traffic controller. We at the Uzokwe's Searchlight are calling for a thorough and take-no-prisoner investigation to get to the bottom of what happened and emplace appropriate remedial and punitive measures.

As all manners of airports keep springing up in Nigeria, a welcome development one must say, strict adherence to all aviation safety rules, in the construction of runways and taxiways, emplacement of all necessary ground instrumentation and the training of air traffic controllers, must be sine qua non. The other time, fire partially gutted parts of the engineering department of Murtala Muhammed Airport 2 where aircraft equipment are kept. According to findings, the fire was the result of electrical faults from the building" [Nigerian Tribune, October 30, 2009]. The bone chilling part is that this was not an aberration because it is said to have happened before. This should not be happening; it should have been investigated the first time and corrected. Are we waiting for a time when the whole airport will be gutted? Is it not said that a stitch in time saves nine?

Finally, the question that must be answered by the NAMA is clear: Are our skies safe? Is there a latent or clear and present danger lurking in our skies, waiting to unfold at unsuspecting passengers? Does the absence of 100% radar coverage for all of Nigeria put aviation and passengers at risk? Do we have in place stringent policies for determination of competent pilots for the Nigerians skies? Do we enforce the emplacement of the right instrumentation on board to avert the type of near mishap that occurred over Port Harcourt skies? The time to honestly answer these questions is now. In light of the critical nature of this issue, Uzokwe's Searchlight will be trained on it as long as possible. May our skies be a source of blessing not a curse.

HERE I STAND