The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has advised pilots flying within the country’s airspace to exercise restrain when adverse weather was observed or reported.
The Director General of NCAA, Dr. Harold Demure, gave the advice, following two aircrafts that overran their runways in the last five days at Asaba and Port Harcourt airports.
He implored pilots to wait and allow adverse weather to subside before commencing flights. He said that pilots should take extra caution to avoid aqua-planning while landing on wet runways.
“Pilots should strictly adhere to the advice of the Duty Air Traffic Controller. It is mandatory for pilots to obtain adequate en-route and destination weather information and briefing from the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) offices and flight crew briefing rooms, prior to beginning flights. Any storm recognized as a thunderstorm should be considered hazardous.
“No thunderstorm can be considered slightly safe. Pilots should be aware that any thunderstorm can pose severe threat to the operation of aircraft,‚Äô‚Äô Demuren warned.
He noted that Nigerian pilots were well trained to manage weather-related effects from heavy rain.
The NCAA boss, however, explained that the onset and cessation of rainy seasons were usually accompanied with moderate to severe thunderstorms. He said that hazards to flights by thunderstorms lied on the fact that phenomena such as severe turbulence, hail and very heavy rain, might be concentrated for a period in a comparatively horizontal distance. According to Demuren, the vertical extent of a typical thunder cloud can exceed 35, 000ft in the tropics and almost every weather hazard is known to aviation manifests in a thunderstorm.
He identified some significant hazards as turbulence, wind-shear, microburst, lighting, low ceiling, reduced visibility, icing and hail.
