BY LAWANI MIKAIRU

The Director General of the Nigerian Meteorological Agency , NIMET, Dr. Anthony Anuforom has said that no single Nigeria airport had wind shear alert system by 2006. The DG made this revelation while speaking with aviation reporters.

It will be recalled that wind shear was fingered as cause of  the two accidents involving Sosoliso and ADC aircraft on December 10, 2005 and October 29, 2006 respectively. Those accidents resulted in the death of hundreds of passengers and crew.

“Wind shear refers to a change in wind speed or direction with height in the atmosphere. Wind shear can also be referred to as a rapid change in winds over a short horizontal distance experienced by aircraft, conditions that can cause a rapid change in lift, and thus the altitude of the aircraft. “

The NIMET DG however said airports have now been equipped with wind shear instruments to guide pilots, as according to him weather is a critical thing in the airspace when a pilot is airborne.

“Since those accidents, and based on recommendations from the Accident Investigation and Prevention Bureau (AIPB), government swung into action to provide funding to equip more Nigerian airports with low level wind shear alert system. Prior to that ADC crash in 2006, there was no single wind shear alert system in any Nigerian airport.

“The first wind shear alert system was installed at Abuja airport. It was also part of the safe tower project. Wind shear alert system is not a cheap technology. It costs quite some money to install one, and of course, we had budgetary constraints. But the news is that presently we have equipped nine airports in Nigeria with wind shear alert system.”

Anuforom also said the 10th wind shear alert system had been installed at the Margaret Ekpo International Airport, Calabar.

“A critical thing in the airspace when a pilot is airborne is the weather. Have you noticed that what the pilot tells you all the time is about weather? He tells you that the en route weather is good; when he is approaching he will tell you the weather is good for landing or he tells you there are a few clouds so you expect some bumps. All that information is coming from NIMET. The procedure is that the information is passed through the air traffic controller. We generate the information and pass it to the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA),” he said.