Despite Calibration Of Lagos Airport (MMIA), Foreign Flights Are Still Diverted To Ghana

Foreign flights are still been diverted to Ghana despite the calibration of Lagos Airport (MMIA) Instrument Landing System by the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency.

Tragedy was averted this week after Lagos bound foreign flights were diverted to Ghana Airport due to poor weather condition and poor Instrument Landing systems (ILS) at Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA).

This comes barely two weeks after the publicised calibration of the Lagos Airport (MMIA) Instrument Landing System by the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency.

Sources reveal that some of the foreign flight that has been diverted includes British Airways (BA) from London; Delta Airlines from USA, and Emirates Airline from Dubai.

The latest of such diversions was British Airways aircraft due to inclement weather conditions. The pilot was forced to divert the flight to Ghana after hovering in the air for over an hour.

One of the passengers in the BA aircraft, Mr. Olayiwola Zaid, while speaking to press, said the sudden diversion was due to the absence of modern lighting equipment to clear the aircraft for landing.

He stated that while some airlines touched down successfully at the Lagos airport, their Boeing 747-400 aircraft couldn’t land due to its size and absence of good lighting equipment.

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Another passenger, Dr Tayo Olusola, a scientist, attributed their flight diversion to bad weather. He was surprised as to why an international airport will lack necessary navigation facilities and clearance equipment for aircraft.

He said:

“It was not only our British Airways plane that was diverted but included are Delta and Emirate airlines. So, it’s not about the issue of the size of the plane. But it has to do with the ‘dysfunctional’ state of some modern landing facilities and equipment at the Lagos Airport”

“It beats my imagination that a Nigerian airport cannot clear aircraft to land just because of harmattan; whereas countries with hazardous weather conditions like snow still clear aircraft for landing at their airports. This shows how corruption has eaten deep into various sectors of our economy; and also stunted even the development of critical facilities at our ‘acclaimed’ international airports.”

Recall that NAMA had in the last quarter of 2018 claimed that it had installed the Category 3 equipment at the Lagos airport.

The equipment is designed to enable aircrafts land even in inclement weather conditions.

Two weeks ago, NAMA revealed it had calibrated the equipment after series of flight diversions to Benin Republic, Togo and Ghana by foreign airlines.

The calibration was done using the $8.5m (₦3.1 Billion) calibration aircraft King Air 350 which was acquired by FG in August 2019.

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