July 17, (THEWILL) – Two Kano-bound flights were at the weekend, diverted to Lagos due to unserviceable runway lighting.
On the 15th July, 2023, at 2300hrs, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), initiated a NOTAM action for the closure of Runway 06/24 between the hours of 2300hrs to 07:00hrs of 16th July, 2023.
A NOTAM is a notice containing information essential to personnel concerned with flight operations, but not known far enough in advance to be publicised by other means. It states the abnormal status of a component of the National Airspace System (NAS) – not the normal status
Explaining the situation, FAAN, in an official statement issued Monday, apologised for the issues that caused the diversion, regretting any inconvenience caused by the diversion of the two Kano-bound aircraft to Lagos, due to the unserviceability of the runway lights of Runway 06/24
Narrating the remote cause of the lighting failure in the statement made available to THEWILL and signed by FAAN’s Director, Public Affairs & Consumer Protection, Abdullahi Yakubu-Funtua, the agency stated, “On July 15, 2023, at about 1600hrs, the airfield maintenance team of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) observed that the runway lighting would not come on after the scheduled daily maintenance work of replacing old and weak Airfield cables with new ones at runway 06/24.”
According to FAAN, the maintenance team immediately initiated fault-finding procedures along the cable route to identify the problem and restore power to the airfield lighting circuit.
It was, however, observed that the entire runway circuit was affected, leading to the failure of the Runway 06/24 edge light, the Taxiway Alpha edge light, PAPI and signage.
Explaining further, it stated that “as at 1900hrs local time, the fault had yet to be isolated and power supply to the runway could not be restored, leaving Runway in a total blackout which affected night operations.
“Arriving flights had to be diverted to alternate airports.
“At 2300hrs, after all efforts to restore power supply to the runway failed, Operations department initiated a NOTAM action for the closure of Runway 06/24 between the hours of 2300hrs on 15th July to 07:00hrs of 16th July, 2023.”
Meanwhile, night operations has since resumed, as new cables were installed on Sunday, 16 July, 2023, leading to restoration of all runway lights before commencement of night operations.
Anthony Awunor, is a business correspondent who holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Linguistics (UNILAG). He is also an alumnus of the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria Kaduna State. He lives in Lagos.
