Another mishap was avoided over the weekend at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, as a British Airways aircraft overshot the runway owing to an alleged failure of the airfield lighting on the runway.
However, the Managing Director of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), Nnamdi Udoh, denied that the failure of the airfield lighting at the airport was responsible for the incident.
A British Airways Boeing 747 had arrived at the Abuja airport at 0515 on Saturday, but as the pilot was trying to taxi the aircraft to the apron, the airfield lighting on the runway packed up, which forced the pilot to overshoot the taxiway.
The aircraft was then forced to remain on the runway for close to an hour before the fault was rectified.
Udoh however, said that the incident occurred because of the closure of part of the taxiway owing to the ongoing repairs on the runway.
“British Airways landed safely. I told them that a lot of work is going on at Abuja airport. Some of the links were closed. It landed at 0400 hours and because it is a 747, it passed where it would turn right and then went towards one of the links that was closed and it needed to turn right there.
The only thing for him (the pilot) to do there was to do what we call back track on the runway, but he preferred to turn right.
“He waited for a couple of minutes and the right link was opened and the man turned right. The era of airfield lighting failure at Abuja airport is over. It is verifiable,” Udoh said.
He added that the aircraft did not cause any delay on the runway.
Culled:Dailytimesnigeria
No comments:
Post a Comment