A United States licensed flight dispatcher, Victoria Adegbe, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to review the shutting down of airports and other economic activities as a way of curbing the spread of COVID – 19. The aviation consultant and Chief Executive Officer of Insel Networks said continuous lock down would spell doom for the aviation industry.
She proposed a ban on the use of screening trays which she says provides contact during check-in and suggested the use of disposable trash bags to be placed at screening points and trashed after use.
Adegbe said: “The solution may not be a total lockdown where airlines are grounded and the passengers stranded all over the world. There is need to look at some things around the airport including automatic terminal doors which opens on its own accord without passengers touching any handles.
“At the screening point, you put your carry-on in a tray for screening while you pass the screening machine empty handed. Then you pick the tray containing your personal effects, take possession of your items and the tray is picked by the officials to be used by someone else.
“You check in, board, not touching a single person, not assisting any one to carry any bags for security reasons; no hugs or kisses. How could COVID -19 spread so fast when airline passengers never touched each other? I believe it is from the trays. Throw out all the trays or burn them all. Use disposable trash bags placed at screening points where you put all your items inside and trash them yourself when done. I believe that’s just what we need to do,” she said. Adegbe cited a report where it stated that the plastic trays used at airport checkpoints around the world and touched by millions of passengers as they drop their carry-on and other items for X-ray scanning harbour a variety of germs.