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How to prevent air accidents – FAAN

16, December 2009

 

 

The Federal Airports of Nigeria has stressed the need for stakeholders in the aviation industry to give priority attention to the management of aerodrome/airfield – the platform for all air operations, towards ensuring the safety and efficiency of flight operations.

The Managing Director of FAAN, Mr. Richard Aisuebeogun, who made the position, reiterated that the effective management of the aerodrome should be of utmost concern to the industry and its stakeholders as many mishaps in flight operations have their origin in lapses at aerodromes. Aisuebeogun, made the position in a paper titled: "Aerodrome Safety in Flight Operations," which he presented at the just-concluded Air Safety Conference organized by the Accident Investigation Bureau in Lagos.

Though absolute safety could not be achieved in practice due to the presence of indispensable latent conditions, Aisuebeogun said operations on the aerodrome should be maintained in such a manner that hazards are eliminated and risks managed as low as reasonably practicable. Observing that many professionals, including engineering, operations, security personnel, ground handling companies, fuel marketers, among others play significant roles in ensuring the success of flight operations, Aisuebeogun examined three factors which constitute major challenges to aerodrome safety. These include runway incursions, wildlife, and foreign object debris (FOD).

The FAAN boss, who examined the increasing aviation accidents and incidents resulting from safety issues on the aerodrome/airfield, expressed fear of imminent disaster if the increasing runway incursions in the aviation industry are not checked in the face of the rising air traffic across the world.
A runway incursion is the unintended presence of an aircraft, vehicle or person on the runway or runway strip according to the European Action Plan on the prevention of the problem.

Aisuebeogun corroborated his claim with the global statistics, which show that there are about 300 runway incursions occurring yearly around the world. Euro control estimates that there are three to four runway incursions occurring daily in Europe. He lamented several cases of runway incursion experienced in the recent past in Nigeria, including the October 5, 2005 incident in which an Air France flight ran over a cow on the Port Harcourt Airport runway. He, however, added that "we are doing our best within the limits of available resources to curb this trend."

Aisuebeogun further said that foreign object debris (FOD) on the runway could also cause catastrophic accidents if unchecked as was the case in the recent past. Jet blast, he said, also exacerbates FOD.
A FOD on the runway was responsible for the death of 113 people aboard an Air France Flight 4590 in the recent past as the Grand Accident Cost model developed by Flight Safety Foundation states that the total cost of apron/ground accidents to the air transport system is about $10bn annually. A task force was commissioned in Europe to arrest the worrisome trend.

The recommendations of the task force, Aisuebeogun revealed, are being examined by Nigeria.
The FAAN further hinted of the problem of wildlife hazard, which constitutes another major challenge to aerodrome safety.

Though not peculiar to Nigeria, Aisuebeogun regretted that about 198 cases of bird strike incidents were reported recently in the country, adding that five other related cases were reported in the last few weeks.
FAAN had in 2007 and 2008 made a documentation of the Bird/Wildlife Hazard Control manual containing the legal framework on airport bird hazard control and how the Authority intends to pursue it in the Lagos, Abuja, Kano and Port Harcourt airports. It has also trained field personnel on ground running shift to cover the operating hours of the airports. FAAN also in 2007 procured bird hazard control equipment (pyrotechnics, bioacoustics and repellent chemicals), which are currently in use for harassing and repelling bird/wildlife on the active runway during landing and take-off as much as allowed by air traffic controllers. The Authority, in addition, has recruited field personnel, for operations at the Calabar, Owerri, Enugu, Benin, Ilorin, Kaduna, Maiduguri and Jos for its B/WHC Program Phase II in 2010.

Aisuebeogun, however, emphasized that the presence of bird attractants within the aerodrome environment would continue to raise safety concerns and affect flight operations. The FAAN boss examined other areas such as fuelling operations, airside vehicle control, aerodrome maintenance safety, sweeping, degreasing and derubberisation, which he said are very important to aerodrome safety and have a significant impact on flight operations. He submitted that safety on the aerodrome could best be ensured by implementing an effective safety management system (SMS), which is an organised set of interrelated processes to allocate resources in order to achieve a condition where risks are managed to acceptable levels.

He added, "By ensuring an effective safety management system at the aerodrome, a lot of accidents can be prevented because SMS will help to identify hazards on time, assess their associated risks and eliminate or mitigate them to as low as is reasonably practicable. "The successful implementation of an SMS at an aerodrome will result in a comprehensive management of safety for the benefit of both people and aircraft in a shared work environment."

 

 

 

Akin Olukunle,
General Manager, Public Affairs