September 21, (THEWILL) – No fewer than 93 birdstrike incidents have occurred throughout Nigerian airports within the first half of 2022.
Out of the quantity, 54 of such birdstrike incidents occurred on the Murtala Muhammed Airport (MMA), Lagos alone.
Birdstrikes trigger extreme security risk to air navigation and when it happens, airways often lose big sums of {Dollars} to such incidents.
For instance, {that a} typical birdstrike may have an effect on the plane’s nostril; that’s the cone, the place the radar is. This prices about $400,000; it may destroy the engine, the place you’ve the turbine blade, the thrust and the boroscope.
Talking on the the workshop organised by the Search and Rescue Mission of the Nigerian Airspace Administration Company (NAMA), on Wednesday, in Lagos, Mr Azike Edozie, Head Fowl/Wildlife Hazard Management, Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), decried the excessive incidents arising from birdstrike incidents within the trade.
Edozie, nevertheless, mentioned that the accountability of conserving the airspace secure from birdstrike incidents lied with each stakeholder within the trade, together with airline operators, safety businesses and the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN).
He expressed hope that the respective businesses would discover a lasting resolution to the menace quickly, decrying that airways have been dropping thousands and thousands of {dollars} to the incident yearly.
He mentioned, “My report exhibits that we’ve had at the least 93 birdstrike incidents in all our airports between January this yr to June. And out of this quantity, 54 of it occurred in Lagos Airport alone, which represents about 70 p.c of the full occurrences.
“All of us should proffer an answer to this menace and I do hope we’ve a long-lasting resolution to it as a result of everybody, particularly the airways are dropping cash.”
Additionally, Mr Adetunji Adetutu, Head of Unit, Fowl Management, FAAN, Murtala Muhammed Worldwide Airport (MMIA), Lagos, in his presentation, identified that no airline was immune from the incident of birdstrikes.
Adetutu defined that FAAN because the airport landlord was doing its finest to curb the unfold of the incident by the procurement of recent gear, which he mentioned had gone a protracted method to scale back its impacts.
He additionally blamed among the pilots for the excessive birdstrike charges within the trade, stressing that among the pilots have been at all times in a rush to depart an airport for the opposite and violate the directions of Air Site visitors Controllers (ATC), insisting that it was mandatory for the airways and their pilots to even have a change of tradition by adhering to the directions issued by ATCs.
In response to him, 98 p.c of birdstrike incidents occurred on the airports, particularly when taking off and touchdown.
He mentioned, “The ultimate say on what occurs to the plane lies with the pilots. Till the ATC provides clearance for pilots to depart or land, it’s mandatory for pilots to take heed to their recommendation.
“Airline operators ought to have a change of tradition on how we supply out our duties. It’s the suitability of the surroundings that carry birds to the airport surroundings. We have now water, shelter and meals across the airports. Runway must be freed from actions at take off and touchdown.”
He emphasised additional that a lot of the birds that trigger havoc on the airports migrate from different continents to Africa at a selected time of the season.
Additionally, Mr Olanrewaju Iwalaye, Search and Rescue Mission Coordinator, NAMA, mentioned it was mandatory for all stakeholders to curb the actinides of birdstrike incidents on the airport with the procurement of superior gear.
Iwalaye, nevertheless, noticed that FAAN, had in latest occasions improved with the procurement of apparatus to scale back the incident.
He added that the identical programme was concurrently occurring in all the foremost airports throughout the nation, together with the Port Harcourt Worldwide Airport (PHIA), Omagwa; Aminu Kano Worldwide Airport (AKIA), Kano; and the Nnamdi Azikiwe Worldwide Airport (NAIA), Abuja.
“We have to discover a method to deal with this problem. Birds are of their pure habitats and most of our airports are constructed near the forest.
“Aside from birds, we even have wildlife animals, that are additionally strikes. We hope to suggest on mitigation, so as to deal with it. We additionally must know the actions of birds too. Statistics that was given earlier signifies that 93 chicken incidents have been recorded as at September 17, 2022, however 32 of this occurred in simply two months.”
