Leadership (Abuja)
Ime Akpan
21 November 2008
Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has alerted pilots on the hazards of harmattan haze and offered guidelines to prevent accidents that such weather phenomenon could cause.
In a statement issued in Lagos and signed by the Director-General of the organisation, Harold Demuren, NCAA directed all pilots to obtain adequate departure, en-route and weather information and briefing from the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) before flight operations.
It also advised pilots to recognise harmattan haze as a hazard and exercise maximum restraint when the condition is observed or forecast.
The effect of harmattan, NCAA stated, "is comparable to that of heavy fog, thus air-to-ground visibility is considered reduced." The authority warned that aerodrome visibility may fall below the prescribed minima and that in severe conditions, dust haze could blot out runways and markers over wide areas thereby making visual navigation impossible.
Moreso, it explained that where visibility falls below the prescribed minima, "flights are bound to be delayed, diverted or cancelled."
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