December 12, (THEWILL) – The Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) says the agency’s upgraded pilot briefing rooms in Lagos and Abuja will be commissioned soon.
The NiMet director-general, Prof Mansur Matazu, who disclosed this to journalists at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA) Ikeja at the weekend, after receiving the ATQ magazines aviation impactful agency award of 2021, urged airlines, pilots, and crew members to always approach the briefing rooms for proper updates.
“Even though we provide some of these services via e-mail, but in the briefing, they get to know details of what they should expect. At times for us in NIMET, we use that platform to get feedback because they are the ones that fly in the air and they can give us a very useful feedback.
“In that, we do what we call forecast evaluation. They evaluate what is given to them, so we encourage them to always visit the briefing rooms of NiMet.”
He revealed that the agency is also deploying what they call runway visual range, an aid vision machine along the runway that would allow aircrafts to land and takeoff even at weather minimal level, which is about 300 meters.
Matazu explained that the era of aircraft diversion as a result of of poor visibility is over, with the successful calibration of the CAT 3 ILS in some major airports.
“Actually, the main challenge that time was the calibration of the CAT3 ILS which has been successfully done in all the major airports. So, with this, we don’t normally expect such. We work in harmony with all the aviation agencies and specially for NAMA, they directly consume our services.
“Even in JFK (New York) they could be such poor weather conditions that could make flight delays. So, we should expect that in the country,. Despite instrumentation serviceability status that you have, there could be such level that it requires certain bad weather. You know that in the atmosphere, you don’t have parking space.”
The NiMet boss explained that the dry season is associated with am influx of dust from the Lake Chad and parts of Niger, which normally reduces visibility.
“So, this season is associated with poor visibility. And when the visibility is so poor, that you cannot have a clear horizontal vision and some airports will have delays in takeoffs and landing of aircraft and sometimes extending to the night time when they can use the lighting of the runway.”
About the Author
Anthony Awunor, is a business correspondent who holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Linguistics (UNILAG). He is also an alumnus of the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria Kaduna State. He lives in Lagos.
