Abandoned Aircraft At Lagos Airport Raises Security Concerns
While elements such as abandoned aircraft may characterise any airport around the world, having too many of them becomes a source of concern and the nuisance can also pose a safety concern.
At the domestic wing of the MMIA, some of the abandoned aircraft have been around for over 10 years, so last week, the FAAN made yet another call to owners to clear their dead planes from the MMIA after a similar ultimatum was issued in 2012 with minimal compliance.
The FAAN has expressed readiness to dispose of such aircraft in line with the provisions of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). The FAAN’s director of Airport Operations, Captain Henry Omeogu, while on a safety inspection at the Murtala Muhammed Airport Domestic Terminal 1 recently, noted that the action had become necessary due to recurring operational hitches that have been posing serious safety concerns to aircraft and some infrastructure at the terminal. He appealed to the owners of the aircraft, some of which had been parked at the airport since 2005, to immediately remove them to forestall situations where unscrupulous elements would use the abandoned aircraft as hiding places to perpetuate criminal activities.
Omeogu said, “The authority will continue to do everything possible to ensure the safety and security of all travellers and other airport users in line with its mission statement. This is why we enjoin all stakeholders to partner with the FAAN to ensure safer and more secure airports.”
However, an aviation expert, Mr Thomas Nnoli, has called on the FAAN to stop handling the issue of abandoned aircraft with a child’s glove.
“I am yet find out if the FAAN’s establishing Act enables it to actually effect deterrent sanctions against people who just abandon their aircraft in the airport. There are both economic and safety implications of this situation. You find out that they do not respond to directives from the FAAN to evacuate the vessels and the authority does nothing against them.
“So I will suggest that the FAAN takes a more serious and deterrent strategy to arrest this situation. FAAN’s laws should be in such a way that it empowers the authority to direct or effect the arrest of defaulters who refuse to comply with directives such as this,” he said.
The FAAN in 2012 gave a similar ultimatum but at its expiration, over 65 old aircraft remained abandoned at the Lagos, Abuja, Owerri, Port Harcourt, Calabar, Kano and other airports in the country, making the FAAN to engage the services of AAYU Steel Nigeria Limited to dismantle the aircraft. Nnoli said that the aircraft are not only to be dismantled but have their scraps sold and monies remitted to the federal government or retained by FAAN to cost of operations as the law requires.
According to Omeogu, owners of abandoned aircraft did not only fail to adhere to the removal exercise over the years, but have also taken FAAN to court over this issue and got court injunctions that made it difficult for the authority to dismantle the aircraft.
“With some of these cases concluded, FAAN was able to remove the 65 aircraft nationwide in 2013 at least for the abandoned aircraft which cases have been concluded,” he said.
He explained that FAAN has continued to maintain that this exercise has become necessary, as the abandoned aircraft constitute severe safety hazard on the airside, apart from being an eyesore at the airports.
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