NCAA to Introduce Aircraft Tracking for Domestic Carriers

The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) will soon make it compulsory for every airline operating in Nigeria to install in its fleet tracking equipment that will capture the movement of the aircraft and relay it to the regulatory body.

This is in conformity with the new International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) policy, prompted by the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 early last which whereabouts is unknown almost a year after.

It is believed that if the aircraft were tracked, it would have been monitored to know exactly where it was before it disappeared and what might have led to its disappearance, as much of what is known about the aircraft today is mere conjecture.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) and ICAO have come up with a new rule that civil aviation authorities should make it compulsory for every aircraft to have the tracking equipment and also ensure that the aircraft are monitored.

ICAO in its Second High Level Safety Conference (HLSC/2) plans to move towards the adoption of a performance-based standard for global tracking of commercial aircraft, supported by a multi-national evaluation exercise to evaluate impact and guide implementation.

“This will continue the industry’s successful record of working with governments to improve safety through global harmonisation. We are all moving in the same direction. The conference conclusions should be a reassurance to all travellers that safety is always aviation’s top priority,” said IATA’s Director General and CEO, Tony Tyler.

The essence of the ICAO recommendation is for aircraft to report their position every fifteen minutes during normal operations. This applies only to remote areas which are not covered by surveillance by air traffic services. The IATA-coordinated Aircraft Tracking Task Force noted in its report that tracking over remote and oceanic airspace could be achieved through existing means of reporting and that new space-based technologies may play a key role in future.

Few years ago, NCAA embarked on installing aircraft tracking equipment but the project may not have been completed but THISDAY gathered on Wednesday that the regulatory authority would soon install more sophisticated tracking equipment which airlines must dovetail with by installing monitoring equipment in their aircraft.

NCAA reached its decision to install aircraft tracking equipment after the crash of Dana Air Flight 992 on June 3, 2012, which killed about 153 people.

Deputy Managing Director of Arik Air, Captain Ado Sanusi welcomed the idea, but insisted that it is not the responsibility of the regulatory authority but that of the airlines to install and monitor tracking equipment to know the movement of their aircraft.

“Most of our aircraft are installed with on-time, real time equipment for reporting system whereby we know exactly what is happening to the aircraft and where it is. The pilots cannot turn it off; nobody can turn it off. It is automatic and satellite based. For ICAO to now present it as one of their recommended practice and I hope the civil authorities will adopt that, it is a very good item to have but it is expensive though. I think it will mitigate the disappearing incident that happened with MH370 last year. When there is an unfortunate incident like that we can pinpoint where it happened and we can go for search and rescue,” Sanusi said.

Source: Thisday