NAMA Calibrates Navigational Aids

Chinedu Eze

The Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) has begun to audit and improve navigational aids at the airports and en-route stations to ensure their accuracy and reliability.

The flight calibration, which is being handled by Omni-Blue Aviation Ltd along with their technical partners, Fight Calibration Services Ltd (FCSL) of United Kingdom in collaboration with NAMA engineers involved the calibration of the agency’s Instrument Landing Systems (ILS), Very High Omni-Directional Radio Range (VOR), Distance Measuring Equipment (DME), Path Approach Precision Indicators (PAPI) and Communication Radio Coverage across the nation.

The agency also said the exercise would involve the flight commissioning of a newly installed Instrument Landing System and Distance Measuring Equipment.

Commenting on the calibration exercise, the Chief Flight Inspector of FCSL, Mr. Nick Whitehouse said the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has requirements for landing systems and that the signaling space must be suitable for the aircraft to lock on, adding that their mission was to measure these navigational aids through specific flight profiles to ensure the accuracy and precision of signals to airspace users.

NAMA has also concluded arrangements for the deployment of four stand-alone JOTRON high-powered, Very High Frequency (VHF) long range communication radios, each to be installed in Lagos West and Lagos East as well as Kano West and Kano East Area Control Centres (ACCs).

Towards this end, the agency has conducted a successful inspection and Factory Acceptance Test (FAT) of the equipment in Norway. The exercise included physical inspection of the facilities and their technical specifications vis a vis the scope given by the agency.

Commenting on the Factory Acceptance Test, Managing Director of NAMA, Capt. Fola Akinkuotu who led the team to Norway expressed optimism that the new solution would not only offer options to controllers at any given point in time to discharge their duties efficiently and without hindrance but also reduce delays and controller workload.

Immigration Officers at MMIA Now Wear Name Tags
In order to enable travellers to identify immigrations officials that have interface with them, the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) has introduced tags for its personnel at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos.
Immigration said this was part of the Ease of Doing Business policy of the federal government, which came to effect in July 2017. It explained that this change did not only take place at the airports but in every of the organisation’s commands.

THISDAY investigations indicated that each officer of immigration on duty had removable tag placed against his counter while attending to arriving or departing passengers.
All the immigration personnel at about 16 counters for immigration processes for arriving passengers were tagged while the same was also done for outbound passengers.
The tag is removed when an officer finishes his or her duty while a new officer who reports for duty also wears the tag for easy identification.

A source close to the command told THISDAY that the Comptroller General, Immigration Service, Mohammed Babandede ordered the move for proper identification of officers especially those who have contact with passengers to ensure accountability and identification of officers.

The source also noted that its personnel had the right to check the travelling documents of any traveller departing or arriving the country, as the Comptroller General of Immigration has intensified the monitoring of activities at the international airports since Nigeria introduced visa on arrival for eligible passengers.

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