The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has threatened to sanction violators of safety measures as spelt out by the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMET), especially during the ongoing raining season.
It also warned pilots and airline operators in the country to exercise caution over aviation hazardous weather in rainy season.
The agency conveyed this in an advisory circular (AC) with reference no AC: NCAA-AEROMET – 33 initiated by the Directorate of Aerodrome and Airspace Standards (DAAS), addressed to all pilots and airline operators and signed by Capt. Musa Nuhu, the Director-General, NCAA.
The statement said that the AC was coming on the advent of the Seasonal Climate Prediction (SCP) released for the year 2022 by NIMET.
It hinted that NIMET has predicted early/late March as the commencement of rainy season across the Southern states, while April/May and June, 2022 is the outset of rainy season in Central and Northern parts of Nigeria.
It also said that rainy season, at outset, is usually characterised with severe thunderstorms and many other hazardous weather phenomena such as severe turbulence, microburst, low level wind shear events that could affect the safety of flight operations.
It said it was necessary for all stakeholders to perform their roles in order to ensure safety of flight operations.
The agency stated that in the interest of safety to humans and equipment, it is the responsibility of the Air Traffic Controllers (ATCs) to temporarily close the airspace when hazardous weather conditions such as severe thunderstorm, squall lines microburst or level wind-shear are forecast by NIMET.
For the pilots and flight crew/operators, NCAA said the body in conjunction with ATC should ensure strict adherence to aerodrome operating minima, while admonishing pilots to exercise maximum restraint whenever adverse weather is observed or forecast by NIMET.
It added: “Pilots /flight crew members shall obtain adequate departure, en-route and destination weather information and briefing from NIMET Aerodrome Meteorological Stations prior to flight operations.
“In view of the above, operators are required to play a key role in ensuring adequate measures are put in place to lessen the effects of the attendant flight delays and cancellations on their passengers occasioned by hazardous severe weather during rainy season in accordance with the Nigeria Civil Aviation Regulations (Nig. CARs) Part 19.
Besides, NCAA urged all passengers to exercise patience and understanding during this period, insisting that their safety is of utmost importance to it and also challenged stakeholders to ensure strict compliance to safety regulations.