“our radio communication today is not at its best”
Over the years, many aviation stakeholders have wondered why pilots and the Air Traffic Controllers, ATCs are always at logger head in the Nigerian Aviation Industry.
Now, there is no need for stakeholders to wonder any longer as the Managing Director, Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, NAMA, Captain Fola Akinkuotu says the conflict has to do with communication.
This is not just a face to face communication but communication through the Radio system provided for pilots and controllers interface in air navigation.
This could be seen as what some people would call the ‘naked truth’.
Captain Akinkuotu being a pilot himself acknowledged that poor communication is a recipe for conflict.
Speaking at an interactive forum organized by the Nigerian Air Traffic Controllers Association, NATCA and the Flight Crew Association of Nigeria, FCAN with the Theme: “Enhancing Safety in Flight Operations”, Captain Akinkuotu said he was particularly happy that the Air Traffic Controllers have come up with this forum, “I like to believe that the subjects to be discussed are very germane to our situation today. At different times since I became the Managing Director of NAMA, I have had the opportunity to interact with the ATCs, feel their purse, get a bit of their pains and a few times I have had to have a chat with the DG NCAA”.
“Based on my career path in life, I have the opportunity to have interacted in another different platform with the ATCs, I use to be an airline pilot, therefore, I talk to them on the radio, some of them I knew personally but actually, I never felt their pains and in recent past, we had issues of what I will call conflicts between ATC s and pilots. But we all know the importance of proper communication even in everyday life”, he added.
The NAMA helmsman explained the importance of communication when he pointed out the result of failure in communication.
“I cannot be communicating with my colleague if he doesn’t understand me, I can be talking to him but for me to communicate I have to say something for him to understand me, internalize it and make good use of what I have to say. If we do not have that communication, then we really have not exchange communication that would be of benefit to both of us”.
The problem of communication between the ATCs and pilots have been a lingering one, at a time, the ATC Association could not bear it any longer, they burst the bubble and announced through the media for those who cared to listen in the corridors of powers that if the radio communication system was not fixed, a disaster was bound to happen.
Well, respite came and something was alleged to have been done but not to the satisfaction of those who use the facility.
According to Captain Akinkuotu, in recent past, NAMA have had through the Director of operation written the DG NCAA of what they thought were potential unsafe situation based on lack of communication between pilots and the ATCs.
“We will recall for those of us who are actively flying, that the situation in the air is very dynamic and there are a lot of things that are thrown in our paths, sometimes weather, sometimes our need to obey the computer and continue on a planned dissent proper or climb proper, sometimes we need to stall, sometimes we want to go on track, with the kind permission of my colleagues, pilots are not the most patient people in the world, I can vouch for that. So, it is natural that in a situation where a pilot is being tossed around in the weather and he wants to avoid it, he wants to avoid it, he wants a different level and he is not getting it through, he gets annoyed, accuse my language, it is likely that he might want to take out on somebody and the only person he might want to talk to quickly is the ATC, particularly if you desired something to be done”.
For the ATC, is just as human, when he is talk down on, he is not going to respond kindly, these are areas, I hope we can identify and talk to.
While admitting that the lingering conflicts between the ATCs and pilots was the agency’s inability to fix the communication problem, Capt. Akinkuotu assured the affected personnel that the agency would continue to work on it until it was near perfect.
“Respecting NAMA, this is something I am proud to be talking about, our radio communication today is not at its best, I have spent two years in NAMA and I thought we have fixed this problem, I haven’t fixed it, we have made in-roads but there are challenges, what I can only assure my colleagues of both pilots and ATCs is that effort is being made and we are not going to stop so long as am in NAMA am trying to fix this problem because, any air traffic control communication that does not crisp clear is a recipe for conflict and what we have found out is that particularly if you are coming from the south-east corridor, a lot of pilots due weather, due poor communications due poor radio have to step on each other and when you step on me, am not going to be particularly happy and if you come from an environment where stepping on people is not so common you might categorize that our airspace as not being too safe”.
“I would like to use this opportunity to implore us to look at our present situation using it as a mode of modulation on how to do our business. I work for NAMA and part of NAMA’s job is communication and we have not achieved what we set out to do but one thing is for sure, we will keep trying. I have had attestation from two to three people that there has been some improvement but for me good is not good
enough why not the best”, he concluded.
