Lagos, Abuja airports installed full radar surveillance
A full radar coverage of 160km radius was at midnight put in place at the Lagos and Abuja airports.
The radar, according to Capt. Ado Ibrahim, managing director of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), unlike before is now on 24-hour coverage .
“It is a 24-hour radar coverage and will be the first time in almost 30 years that the Nigerian airspace will be covered 24 hours non-stop,’’ Ibrahim said.
The radar will aid the monitoring of aircraft from take-off to landing and also changes search and recovery to search and rescue in case of a mishap, the NAMA MD said.
The minister of state for air transportation, Olufemi Fani-Kayode, explained that prior to midnight the radar coverage of these airports had been for three to four hours.
“The radar regime was started in 1978 under the Olusegun Obasanjo military regime but was abandoned but now under the same man and his reform agenda we have finally realised the vision of a 24-hour radar coverage.
“It should also be noted that this equipment is very vital in air travel safety and security, because apart from monitoring the aircraft mid-air, it also monitors its take-off and landing which are critical periods in air travel,’’ Fani-Kayode said.
The minister also said that all the other airports in the country would soon have the same 24-hour radar coverage as well as have Track-on and Safe Tower equipment in all the nation’s airports.
“In the next few weeks we would commission the Track-on and Safe Tower equipment which would put this country among the comity of nations with safe skies,’’ the minister said.
The minister also said that the radar, apart from monitoring the aircraft would expedite traffic and ease separation of aircraft as well as reduce the risk of mid-air collision to the barest minimum.