Nigeria Content Online

Following last
Tuesday’s shut down of airports in North African nation Morocco, and
some countries in Europe as a result of the second eruption of ash from
Iceland, Nigeria’s civil aviation has said that there are no plans yet
to close the country’s airspace.

The Nigerian Civil
Aviation Authority (NCAA), being the primary body saddled with the
regulating the industry, disclosed that if there is a need to have the
nation’s airspace closed, it would be alerted by the Nigerian
Meteorological Agency (NIMET), promising that the authority will not
hesitate to stop flight operations if the situation warrants such.

We have the technology

“NIMET forecast
weather, for they have the technology and manpower to get this done;
our role by law is to issue advisory circulars to airline operators,
pilots, air traffic controllers and other key industry personnel as to
weather developments made available to us by the meteorological
agency,” said Sam Adurogboye, media head NCAA over the weekend at the
authority’s headquarters in Lagos.

“For the fact that
Morocco shut down its airports does not mean we are to carryout same,
it can only be done when we have such information to do so from NIMET.”

Explaining that
the State-Weather-Minima (SWM), which is the minimum visibility level
for operating an aircraft within a particular state, is currently
normal in most parts of the country, the authority’s spokesperson
disclosed that pilots are occasionally updated on what to do at any
given point in time, adding that any violation to stipulated procedures
and principles automatically necessitates grounding.

“With the SWM they
will know which airport they must not go to, or the one that they must
not land in, for any thing below that means no aircraft is expected to
fly within that territory,” he said. “For instance that of Lagos is
800m as was made public during the last haze that was seen in the State
and you can recall that flight operations were suspended for a while
until the situation improved.”

Meteorological agency comments

When contacted,
Austin Udogwu, chief meteorologist for the central forecast office of
NIMET in Lagos, gave an assurance that the country’s weather is
presently safe for flight operations, but declined comment on how
possible the volcanic ash eruption disrupting flight operations across
Europe will impact Nigeria.

“As for our
weather there is no problem, but I cannot speak on international
weather issues for now,” he said. “The fact is that we are working hard
to relay up to date weather information to ensure safety.”

Hakeem Jimoh,
media consultant for Lufthansa Airlines, an international carrier that
operates to countries in Europe, disclosed that flights are still
operational, adding that the ash cloud experienced this time is not as
severe as the previous one that occurred last month which paralysed
aircraft services for at least five days.

“Everything is fine and our flights are operating as normal,” he
said. “The ash this time is not as harsh as that of April, so I don’t
think it will stop us from flying.”