Louis Ibah
Nigerian pilots have raised the alarm over the poor state of runways in most of the country’s airports, urging that urgent intervention of relevant government agencies to avert air accidents.
Daily Sun learnt that pilots in recent months have been experiencing difficulties landing at the Port Harcourt, Enugu, and Lagos airports owing to their dilapidated runway surfaces. The three airports’ runways, according to pilots, don’t allow sufficient friction for landing aircraft tyres especially during rainy conditions.
Chief Pilot of Air Peace Airline, Capt. Victor Egonu, who addressed journalists in Lagos to explain the skidding of a Boeing 737 aircraft upon landing at the Port Harcourt International Airport last Saturday confirmed fears by pilots that they are meant to be flying into death traps during raining conditions in some airports. Egonu said preliminary investigations by Air Peace on the skidding incident involving its Boeing 737 aircraft indicated that the runway surface of the Port Harcourt International Airport was waterlogged and did not drain properly to allow the smooth landing of the aircraft even after requisite clearance had been obtained from Air Traffic Controllers (ATC) by the two pilots.
“Pilots in Nigeria complain very often about the surface of Port Harcourt Airport runway that it is waterlogged and doesn’t drain properly whenever it rains to allow for smooth landing because there are depressions which allows water to collect,” said Egonu.
“And if you fly into Enugu, it is so bad that Air traffic controllers have to advise you that they are potholes and stones jumping off could burst your tyres and pilots are usualy scared. We have airlines with torn tyres from this. At the Lagos airport runway 18L, we are now avoiding it whenever it rains because it doesn’t drain well and so we divert to land at runway 18R.