Grounded by unfriendly weather

By Solomon Ibharuneafe
Monday, January 17, 2005

Confusion and anxiety for air travellers in Nigeria last week as harmattan haze disruptes flights in all parts of the country

The aviation industry in Nigeria was last week badly hit by the harmattan haze which was prevalent in virtually all parts of the country. The bad weather, prevented many aircraft from landing and taking off. Though most of the foreign airlines were able to land because of their in-built landing facilities, the local aircraft could not because of the inadequate landing facilities in the country.

Newswatch investigations revealed that most flights were cancelled throughout the country to avoid any serious disaster as the meteorological agency confirmed that visibility in most of the airports was at a zero level. Worst hit by the harmattan haze were Muslim pilgrims going on this year's hajj whose airlifting had to be deferred for some days. For example about 500 of the pilgrims could not be flown through the Maiduguri airport. There were similar incidents at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.

A source in the northern part of the country told Newswatch that because of the harmattan haze, thousands of intending pilgrims were stranded at the Maiduguri and Yola airports for three days. Their flights were cancelled. The source explained that unless the weather improved, flights would continue to be cancelled.

When Newswatch visited the hajj camp at the Murtala Muhammed international airport last Wednesday, thousands of pilgrims complained bitterly about their plight. They attributed the situation partly to the poor weather and poor management of the hajj by the pilgrims welfare board. Bello Adeleke who spent 15 days at the camp said the situation demoralised him. He noted that such a situation had led some pilgrims in the past to embark on obnoxious activities instead of the pure religious obligation. Muyibi Amosu also from Abeokuta zone spoke in the same vein.

Experts who spoke to Newswatch said that the harmattan haze is a global climatic change. They said when the weather minima dropped to 800m it is dangerous for flight operations. According to experts 800m is only good for smaller aircraft and 1200m for aircraft to fly normally.

Newswatch learnt that the weather minima dropped to 300m in Kano, Kaduna, Zaria, Maiduguri and Port Harcourt while Lagos was 500m. The Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, not oblivious of the danger of flying in such dangerous weather level cancelled a lot of flights last week. Sule Bates, terminal manager, FAAN at the hajj camp said though the weather contributed to the non-lifting of the pilgrims, the greater problem was the delay by the IRS airline that was chosen to airlift the pilgrims. He said the pilgrims now at the camp numbering more than 3000 were supposed to be airlifted by IRS but he was surprised that few days to the expiration of the airlift, the airline was still not able to do so.

Although he was optimistic that the airline might be able to meet the deadline, he implored the management of the airline to expedite action to quickly alleviate the sufferings of the pilgrims.

When Newswatch visited the IRS office at the General Aviation Terminal, GAT, at the domestic airport, the station manager was not available for comments.