State of security at Nigerian airports By Eno-Abasi Sunday DAILY, the problem of insecurity assails all facets of our national life in a fashion more astounding than it has ever been. And as a direct response, concerned authorities, who are never proactive, are always quick to mouth ways of curbing the menace only to volte-face shortly after the furore generated by such security challenge may have petered out, while the situation, naturally returns to the status quo ante. This much can be gleaned from the litany of high profile security breaches at nearly all of the country’s international airports in the last decade or thereabouts, and how concerned authorities have perfected the art of lip service to the chagrin of the general public. The latest incidence involving the 13-year-old movie freak with an American dream on his mind, Daniel Oikhena, who stowed away and hitched a free ride from the Benin Airport to the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos, within the wheel well of an Arik Air flight, has pitched the airline and the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), in a war of words, leaving the entire country and indeed the aviation world perplexed at the dexterity, with which clear cases of avoidable blunders and negligence are explained or justified. Barely few weeks after the Benin airport hosted a “play” of absurd proportions, where travelers were left despaired as Governor Adams Oshiomhole’s tax men battled to get their due from the federal agency, and on a day the Aviation Minister, Stella Oduah and other eastern big wigs were partying over the opening of the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu, to direct flights by Ethiopian Airways from Addis Ababa, the sad episode decided to play out itself to remind us of the security deficit in our airports and of course, the immense ground that have been left uncovered. Despite claims by airport managers across the country that security has been beefed up in these facilities, especially in the wake of dire security challenges, occasioned by global terror threats, the Benin-based teenager, has proven that the contrary was the situation on ground. In fact, how he successfully breached the acclaimed several layers of the airport’s security, made it into the belly of the craft and survived the 35-minute Benin City-Lagos flight, will remain a talking point for a long time to come. As in the past, this incidence has been hallmarked by immense buck-passing and blame game between the management of Arik Air and FAAN. According to spokesperson of the airline, Mr Banji Ola, who blamed the ugly development on the lapses at the airport, “The pilot of Arik Air flight W3 544, departing Benin Airport for Lagos at 9:00am on 24th August, 2013, reported to the control tower the presence of a strange boy in the bush about 200-300 metres at the end of Runway 23. The control tower told the captain that they were sending security men to the place to arrest the boy. As the captain was making his final turn, preparatory for take-off, a cabin crew called his attention to the information by some of the passengers that they saw a boy running towards the airplane. The captain again reported to the control tower and was informed that the situation was under control and that he had been cleared for take-off.” Unknown to the passengers, the cabin and cockpit crew as well as airport security, the boy had made himself “comfortable” in the wheel well of the craft before it finally took to the sky. FAAN’s spokesman, Yakubu Dati has, however, remained unrelenting in his submission that Arik Air was responsible for the breach by not conducting a check on the aircraft after the attention of the crew and ground staff was drawn to an abnormality on the tarmac. He particularly noted that the procedure to adopt when such a situation presents itself is for the crew to abort the flight and return to the apron for check-up, a step the Arik Air pilot failed to take. Already, the regulatory body, the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), has commenced full investigation into the matter, with its Director-General, Captain Fola Akinkuotu, disclosing that appropriate sections of the law will take its full course on erring parties, as it would not leave any stone unturned in upholding safety and security regulations in the aviation sector. Aviation is not alien to the issue of desperate people stowing away and hitching a free ride in the tyre compartment of airlines. Internationally, from 1947 until September 2012, there were 96 known stowaway attempts worldwide in wheel wells of 85 separate flights. But the latest, which makes it 97, is also the second involving an Arik Air flight. These incidences have resulted in 73 deaths with only 24 survivors. Nearly all of the stowaways are males. Stowaways, who are unlisted passengers on aircrafts wheel wells, face numerous health risks, many of which are fatal: being mangled when undercarriage retracts, tinnitus, deafness, hypothermia, hypoxia, frostbite, acidosis and finally falling when the doors of the compartment reopen. The landing gear compartment is not equipped with heating, pressure or oxygen, which are vital for survival at a high altitude. According to experts, a stowaway hitching a ride on a flight at 18,000 feet will suffer hypoxia, which causes lightheadedness, weakness, vision impairment and tremors. By 22,000 feet the oxygen level of the blood drops and the person will struggle to stay conscious. And above 33,000 feet (typical for commercial flights) then their lungs would need artificial pressure to operate normally. However, since the general insecurity and terrorist threats in the country increased over the years, marginal improvements have been recorded in the passenger check- in areas of some airports as it pertains to scanning and baggage checks, even though most security personnel, more often than not, resort to demanding for tips than perform their tasks, which demands eagle-eyed vigilance. This and sundry acts of negligence, still make the overall security of the nation’s airports highly suspect and capable of being breached with relative ease. As a matter of fact, most of Nigeria’s 22 airports cannot boast all-round perimeter fencing across. This explains why humans and all sorts of animals stray and rove across the runways at will. In most airports situated in the outskirts of Nigerian cities, farmers and sundry rural dwellers create footpaths, through which they gain unimpeded access to these facilities round-the-clock. These footpaths can also become expressways for evil-minded characters, including terrorist groups, should they need to practice their trade. Conversely, even a fenced and gated facility manned by a sloppy personnel, is not insulated from avoidable breaches as recorded in some of these important gateways to the nation. One of these happened in March 2010, when a taxicab ran into a parked Arik Airline flight at the Margaret Ekpo International Airport, Calabar, Cross River State. The cab driver tore his way into the airside through the Nigerian Air Force gate; and thereafter meandered through two other gates before ramming the rickety vehicle into the underbelly of the waiting craft, which was preparing to head to Abuja. Although there were neither casualties nor injuries, the airliner marked 5N-MJJ, however, suffered some damages in the incident, which happened at 2:45pm, necessitating the deployment of another flight to ferry the stranded passengers. A year later in March 2011, another breach was recorded in Bauchi State, when the aircraft conveying the vice presidential candidate of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Mr. Fola Adeola, and other party chieftains to Bauchi for a campaign rally crash landed at the city’s air strip. The HS-125 chartered aircraft with registration number 5BN-BNR, which was operated by Kings Air, crash-landed due to non-clearance of the airport runway by airport authorities. Despite receiving an approval to land, the pilot discovered as he descended that the runway of the airport had been taken over by a herd of sheep and goats, which had strayed in from the neigbouring village owing to its porous perimeter fence. This forced the pilot to force-land, damaging the aircraft. None of the passengers in the plane was seriously hurt. Earlier in July 2005, a brand new Air France jet making its first international commercial flight ran into stray cows on landing at the Port Harcourt International Airport. Though no one was injured in the accident, the Airbus A330 suffered minimal damage but killed a number of the hoofed animals. According to President of the Association of Industrial Security and Safety Operators of Nigeria (AISSON), Dr. Ona Ekhomu, the recent security breach at Benin airport, “Was a very unfortunate and should never have been allowed to happen because it was preventable. Having happened already, it should trigger an automatic security audit of the entire airport security systems, because there are vulnerabilities, which need to be addressed. Ekhomu, a security consultant stressed that more than anything else, “this incident tells our airport managers that there is need for quality assurance on the type of security provided the airside because if there had been frequent penetration of that area by relevant personnel, in order to nip in the bud, the activities of any Potential Threat Element (PTE), what happened would not have happened. It appears there has been a lot of emphasis on the security of the landside to the detriment of the airside, which is where the plane operates. Furthermore, the issue of 100 per cent perimeter fencing should be given utmost attention because you can never have a safe airside when an airport is partially fenced. Ekhomu who expressed dismay at the handling of the situation so far continued, “I am very appalled that concerned authorities don’t seem to have displayed immense seriousness in addressing this very serious security breach because we are playing with people’s lives. FAAN is the landlord, owner and operator of airports in the country and the statutes, which brought it to life, gives it sufficient powers and financial resources to carry out these functions. But the point here is that their security programmes needs to be implemented in a proactive manner because the teenager has shown that they are not doing enough to protect our airports. Now that there is ample evidence that security is lax, then somebody should be held accountable, and in this case, I think FAAN is the culprit. If we are serious about becoming a serious player in the aviation world, these kinds of embarrassing situations should never be tolerated. We are lucky this was just a prankster, it would have been different if it were to be a malevolent person.” He added that, “with what has happened, our eyes are open to the fact that a PTE could have just deposited a bomb there undetected, which would have eventually caused a catastrophe. So we must ensure that our operations conform to the industry’s best practices. This will enable us decipher what factors that facilitated that serious breach.” Culled from the Guardian
Posted on: Mon, 02 Sep 2013 01:28:57 +0000
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