Kingaway:
Enugu Airport Runway Death Trap By Capt. Everest Nnaji
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By Evarest Nnaji

As my Lagos bound commercial flight charged out on takeoff roll on Runway-26 at Enugu airport, my heart jumped out of my mouth as a sudden shock jolted the airplane fuselage when the landing gears hit the macadamised portion of the runway; a shoddy construction job embarrassingly delivered by PW construction company less than six years ago.

This frightening jolt immediately left a bad taste in my mouth as I ruminated on the circuitous route and rigmaroles the people of South East encountered to get the airport see the light of the day both in terms of the resurfacing and extension of the runway and the actualisation of its international airport status.

I stand to be contradicted to say that PW sabotaged the airport and the people of the South East. This is more so, as I recall the synergy and support put together amongst the Federal government and States government of the South East; Federal legislators as well as Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) when that runway extension and resurfacing took effect back in 2010. The tumultuous goodwill and support PW enjoyed, as it was granted every extension it requested in terms of time, and was granted every contract variation it requested to guarantee a good and thorough job that should measure to international standard.

The runway design handed over to PW was based on International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) standard. Therefore, this level of runway structure could rightly have been constructed in any country of the world under the standard of ICAO. But an alarm was set off in my head as I considered that this runway actually and realistically failed under 95 days of active landing impacts.

The standard in Enugu runway design means it could have been at London Heathrow or Dallas Fort Worth International airport, or any other ICAO country international airport for that matter.
For instance, each of the seven runways at Dallas Fort Wort (DFW) handles impact average of 336 landing per day, which translates to 10,080 landing impact per month or 120,960 for one year.

Enugu airport runway between 2010 and 2015 recorded average of 15 landing per day. Therefore, 450 landing impact per month. From 2010 when the runway was resurfaced to 2015, was just six years, that is 72 months. At 450 landing per month, Enugu airport recorded just about 32,000 landing impact before it failed. If we divide 32,000 landing impact at Enugu with about 336 landing impact per day that obtains at Dallas DFW, for instance, we will have 95 days of landing impact.
This means that if Enugu airport runway was subjected to the volume of use as obtained on one of the runways at DFW, it actually failed at 95 days of landing impact.

If one considers the economic hardship, stress and risk the South East suffered and encountered during the almost one year Enugu airport closed for the resurfacing and extension of the runway in 2010; one cannot but pity our society and South Easterners in particular.

Nigerian Airports Record 41,745 Flight Delays
Elsewhere, PW and its “airport runway engineers” would have had their engineering licenses and certificates revoked and be possibly sent to prison with the contract amount returned to Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria.

When one considers the embarrassment, the distraction of business that will happen to the Airlines and ancillary services, both local and international, when the runway will be closed again for repair – God knows how many years that will take with the present economic problem in Nigeria – the pains of this kind of sabotage hits hard in the face.

PW has been around in this country for so long. It has also delivered numerous jobs around the nation, so I know there is more to this shoddy job than meet the eye. But time will tell.
In view of this, I hereby recommend inta alia: (a) That PW should be stripped of every contract that has to do with airports and runways in Nigeria. (b) That PW be made to fix the runway without charging additional dime to FAAN or FGN. And PW be made to show proof of all funds needed for the job so as to avoid senseless delay on the remedy job. (c) That PW be made to issue a 25 year guarantee on the runway on completion of the repair. It will also maintain the runway for the next 25 years without charging a dime to FAAN or FGN. (d) To compel it to pay full attention on the runway, PW must halt all its ongoing construction job throughout Nigeria until the runway is repaired and recommissioned.

The current horrible situation of Enugu airport runway readily brings to mind one of the embarrassing challenges of our national infrastructure development. Most times we are challenged to question whether our roads are basically poorly constructed as a result of poor technical competence on the part of the contractors, or that like the Chinese variegated product standards, the quality and standard of products you demand and pay for is what will be produced are handed to you. In other words, that the quality of job they deliver is proportional to the amount of money they are paid.

In our probing perplexities, we at times also wonder if the national embarrassment of our road infrastructure could be a case of our natural indifference to maintenance culture. Put it differently, could the reason for the mind boggling failure of our road infrastructure that most times happens even before the commissioning, be blamed on the fact that our road maintenance agencies do not follow up immediately until a greater portion of the roads are dilapidated? These reasoning “excuses” have been dismissed with the wave of the hand by those who opine that when you travel on highways around the world, you don’t see road maintenance agencies patching up the roads, as you travel. And in those countries, roads hardly fail before they are commissioned for public use – a deplorable situation very common in our dear country.
On cost comparison, Nigeria pays more than 200% the value of runway construction cost when compared with other ICAO countries of the world.

Presently, in Enugu, airport personnel use putty to fill up the macadamised portions of the runway before each landing of any heavy aircraft at the airport. This is totally unacceptable, government should rise up to the challenge and arrest the culprits and compel them to remedy this blatant fraud committed against the Nigerian nation; the people of the South East and Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria.

Our attempt at holding people accountable to their actions and to bring sanity and sanctity, dignity and respect to our common wealth in our nation will be a long shoot if full and commensurate penalties are not meted out to the culprits to serve as a deterrent to other contractors and their likes in our new and evolving Nigeria.
• Nnaji, the Managing Director/CEO of OAS Helicopters, writes from Lagos

Kingaway:
How Female pilots Are Taking Over The Aviation Industry By Captain Everest Nnaji


Aviation has been a man’s game for decades — despite women’s significant contributions from the beginning — but now aviation leaders say they want to ensure more leading roles for women.

The “boys club” of aviation is a result of many decades of neglect, ignoring or diminishing women’s contributions, creating artificial hurdles and sending mixed-messages to young girls, especially in advertising.

The fact is that women have played a pivotal role in the growth of aviation from the beginning, and particularly during times of war. They have piloted, helped build and maintained aircraft, even helped build the systems that keep aircraft flying safely.

In time past, aircraft piloting was more of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects concepts, but technology has twisted and turned that around. With nimble fingers and a well organised mind, electronics computers have put flying in the hands of anybody with basic education as well as articulate mind and the passion to fly.

Many people know of Amelia Earhart, whose mysterious disappearance while crossing the Pacific Ocean continues to garner speculation, but other women who accomplished great things in aviation are, sadly, less well known.

Willa Beatrice Brown was the first African American woman to earn her pilot’s license in 1938 and a commercial pilot’s license in 1939. She was also the first African American woman officer to serve in the US Civil Air Patrol and the first woman in the US who was qualified both as a pilot and as an aircraft mechanic. She even helped found the Cornelius Coffey School of Aeronautics. In her spare time on the ground, Brown was also the first African American woman to run for Congress. This suggests lots of capabilities amongst women that would require encouragement

Over the past ten years, the number of women successfully gaining their ways into the cockpit around the world, and in Nigeria too, is overwhelmingly encouraging. This can be attributed to the fact that the factors that had hindered ladies into the cockpit have been completely eliminated with modern day science and greater awareness in the society.

With hydraulic system enhancement and computerisation of flight controls, flying no longer requires so much of physical human power; you now need more articulate and multitasking minds to excel in the modern day cockpit.

In the hierarchy of attributes required to fly an aircraft in our modern world, male special attributes like higher physical strength now occupies nowhere; conversely, multitasking ability which is regarded to be found more in women is in the upper echelon of the hierarchy.

Ladies are also considered to have less societal pressure and are naturally endowed to be much calmer; these also occupy a higher space in the hierarchy of attributes. Human intelligence which sits atop all the attributes is shared equally by both gender. Therefore, male pilots can no longer, realistically, be said to have better chances to cockpit in the modern time aviation world.

In our own Nigeria society, given the nature of boldness with which our women have embraced the challenges to measure up to the current world order, be it business, politics, art and fashion etc, the only identified inhibiting factor that might militate against having near equal number of gender in our cockpits over the next twenty years, would be the cost of training and self limitations. But that has also, always, been a factor to both gender. At the moment, it costs as high as $100,000 to $200,000 to train an initial pilot up to commercial flight. And very few families can afford that cost in our society, especially with the current economic downturn. But this is again where women have advantage if one considers that aviation investors are more likely to invest in initial training of female pilots than male; reason being that research has shown that ladies when drawn on an agreement to serve the sponsoring organisation for a given period to offset training costs, are more likely to do so than their male counterpart without resorting to rancors which have over the years discouraged investors from sponsoring initial trainings for pilots.

There is push back from all corners in the past to helping women develop and grow in Aviation, both out of a concern for equality and for economic reasons. Airlines now realize that they are going to run critically short of the “manpower” they need to grow, and are making a priority of recruiting and training more women to take charge.

Considering these factors, business aviation like every other highly technical commercial adventure where consistency and reliability is key; as well as a commercial enterprise where income and return to investment is also a critical success factor, women in our modern world stand the brighter chance of taking their full share of the aviation cockpit.