The regulatory Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has acquired an aircraft tracking system as part of efforts to ensure air safety in the country, the local media reported Monday, quoting the NCAA Director-General Harold Demuren.
Demuren said the tracking system would allow the regulatory authority, airlines and other operators to locate, with precision, the whereabouts of aircraft anytime, in addition to being used for search and rescue operations.
“Airlines will be by far the biggest beneficiaries. If you have 26 aircraft, costing more than six billion US dollars, you want to know where they are at all times. You can be in your hotel room, hook up to our system and you see exactly where your aircraft are,’’ Demuren said.
The NCAA boss said the system came with meteorological capabilities and could generate accurate and real-time weather report for aircraft departure, en-route and arrival.
Aviation experts told PANA in Lagos Monday that the acquisition of the tracking system will prevent a recurrence of the disappearance, in 2008, of a Beechcraft 1900D aircraft with three crew members on board.
The wreckage of the plane, which was flying from the economic capital city of Lagos to Obudu in Southern Cross River State, and the remains of the crew were not found until after six months, when antelope hunters chanced on it in a mountainous rain forest in the state
