The approach lights on the runway of the Murtala Muhammed
International Airport, Lagos, have gone off, forcing pilots to depend solely on
equipment onboard their aircraft to land
An approach lighting system is a lighting system installed
on the approach end of an airport runway and consisting of a series of
light-bars, strobe lights, or a combination of the two that extends outward
from the runway end, according to Wikipedia.
It is a lighting system that assists the pilot/aircraft to come in and
land safely.
Impeccable airport sources said the approach lights
collapsed on Monday evening and pilots were subsequently forced to rely solely
on their onboard equipment to land airplanes.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because
they were not authorised to speak on the matter, said it was sad that the
relevant aviation authorities did not issue a Notice to Airmen on the
development until later on Tuesday.
A copy of the NOTAM showed
that the document was issued by the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency’s
Aeronautical Information Services department.
The NOTAM, dated May 31, 2022, was signed by one Abah G.N,
an official of the airspace agency.
As of 10:30pm on Tuesday, it was uncertain when the problem
would be fixed.
The Acting General Manager, Public Affairs, Federal Airports
Authority of Nigeria, Mrs Faithful Hope-Ivbaze, asked our correspondent to send
a text message when she was contacted on the development.
A pilot with one of the domestic airlines, who chose to
speak on condition of anonymity on the matter, said the collapse of the
approach light could inhibit pilots’ capability to land airplanes safely in bad
weather.
According to him, the approach lights assist pilots in
landing on the runway.
“It is sad that the relevant authorities are just issuing
NOTAM on the development over 24 hours after the light collapsed. That is very
dangerous. This is very annoying,” the pilot said.
A pilot and President, National Association of Private
Aircraft Owners, Mr Alex Nwuba, said there was no reason to panick over the
development but stressed that there an urgent need for the authorities to fix
the lights as soon as possible.
Last year, some parts of the runway lights at the MMIA
collapsed, forcing British Airways to divert its flight to the Abuja airport.
The development then forced the Nigerian Civil Aviation
Authority, the aviation industry regulator, to downgrade the landing procedure
at the Lagos airport from Category Two to Category One.
BA passengers whose flight was diverted to the Federal
Capital Territory were forced to pass a night in Abuja before being flown back
to Lagos.
The unserviceable state of the runway lights made it
impossible for BA, which flies a large plane, to land at the Lagos airport at
night. Other foreign airlines with relatively smaller planes can land.
Also, last week, the international wing of the MMIA was
temporarily shut after the mangled body of a dead man was found on Runway 18R
of the nation’s flagship airport.
During the temporary shutdown of the runway, international flights
were prevented from landing and taking off from the airport’s international
terminal.
Among the flights that could not land due to the shutdown
was an Ethiopian Airlines flight 3907, a Boeing 77F aircraft with registration
number ETAVN, which was coming from Lome, Togo to Lagos, Nigeria.
The flight was later diverted back to Lome after holding for
a while.
Airport officials said the corpse was suddenly found on
Runway 18R during a routine runway inspection by FAAN personnel.
As of the time of filing this report, FAAN had yet to
confirm the identity of the corpse.
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