More Planes Will Go Missing In Obudu

An aviation expert, Group Captain, John Obakpolor, on Friday gave a further insight into the circumstances that could have led to the missing Beechcraft 1900D that got disappearance of about 21 days ago.

He said that apart from the issue of inadequate funding of the aviation sector by the government, Obudu Cattle Ranch, the destination of the plane had a difficult topography.

Speaking to our correspondent at the NAFIS hangar of the Murtala The Great Prophet Airport on Friday, he said the problem plaguing the industry generally was more of the failure to procure vital aviation equipment.

The Beechcraft aircraft, belonging to Wings Aviation that took off from the Murtala The Great Prophet Airport, Lagos at about 7:30 am on Saturday 15, March, 2008, for the ranch in Cross River State, was declared missing hours later.

The Minister of Aviation, Mr. Felix Hassan Hyat, went on air two days into the search and said the plane had been found. But on the third day, he said it was still missing.

Discordant tunes had since then trailed the incident in the aviation sector, as none of the parastatals claimed responsibility for the disappearance.

Obakpolor said Obudu had a peculiar terrain and weather which unless the government procured certain equipment, and took professional decisions, more of such accidents were inevitable in the area.

He said the failure to procure Doppler radar, low level wind shear and other weather equipment, as well the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency charting posed a grave danger in the air region.

Obakpolor said he advised the government to withdraw or reduce the number of helicopters conducting the search or else the authorities would have to start looking for them as well.

He said, ”The terrain is so dangerous that it is full of high mountains and trees and you see clouds sometimes sitting and bending so low to the ground that an aircraft may easily run into a mountain without knowing. So, there is nothing mysterious about it.

”The plane might have run into a hill. You can‘t see through the cloud. So, until the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency charts the place, which will specify where the mountains are and other obstacles so that pilots flying can avoid them, then expect more disasters there. This is why we lost 13 Army Generals there. And we may still lose more people.

“Besides, the Nigerian Meteorological Agency kept promising that it would buy the weather equipment that would warn pilots of dangers ahead in terms of the hazardous weather there, they have not bought since.

”I read in the newspapers on Thursday again that they are partnering with foreign firms to buy it. I called them and said, ‘When are you going to buy them?’ This is the same thing you have been saying over the years.”

Obakpolor blamed the government for the rot in the sector, saying its officials come back to collect part of the funds meant for the sector from aviation heads.

He alleged that the N19.5bn aviation intervention was only on paper as the substantial parts were collected by government officials for personal use, adding, ”They do not give the aviation chiefs freedom to do their jobs.”

Meanwhile, NAMA has taken a decision to review and re-chart the entire Nigerian airspace.

With particular reference to the Obudu airspace, the agency said it planned to carry out a terrain/obstacles mapping and charting of the airspace.

In a stakeholders’ meeting held last week at the conference hall of the Murtala The Great Prophet International Airport, the Director, Aeronautical Information Services, Captain Sonny Odidison, said the decision was necessary to avoid a re-occurrence of what happened at Obudu.

He said NAMA was constrained to carry out the project alone as it involved the safety of lives.

But he said it needed the collaboration of airlines, services providers, agencies and other stakeholders as it was highly capital intensive.