Nigerian Flight Deck Travel and Business Reportage
MANAGING director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Captain Hamisu Rabiu Yadudu has said that there should be no hue and cry over a go-around procedure as it is normal practice and one of the redundancies in aviation.
Captain Yadudu made this known on the heels of yesterday’s incident involving Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET 901 which encountered bad weather while trying to land at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos.
According to the FAAN boss, who is also a professional pilot, the go around is a normal procedure that all pilots train for, and the procedure can be done as many times as possible because it is a redundancy and not meant to be sensationalized as such makes aviation unsafe to the uninitiated.
Go-around is a procedure, they say you can do a go-around and come and land safely and then you want to avoid the media for something that leads to safe operations. Pilots are even encouraged to do the go-around. In fact I have done a go-around twice in one airport, so long as you have enough fuel you can do the go-around until its safe to land. When we are doing training we do this go- around as much as five times, sometimes seven to 10 times in one journey.
There is nothing wrong, there are so many procedures that are just like that and that is why they are redundancies. For people that are uninformed , or uninitiated, they take it up as serious stories and destroy the fun in flying and they are even making it unsafe because pilots will become jittery unconsciously I think we have a duty when something like this happens, we state the facts so as to protect the industry.”
“When it is reported in that light, all the stakeholders are unhappy with it but only the writer is happy, no airline wants to be reported for go-rounds or doing the right thing. NCAA doesn’t like it, NAMA doesn’t like it.”
Recall after reportage of the Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET 901 incident as a near crash, General manager, Ethiopian Airlines in Nigeria, Firihiewot Mekonnen came out with a statement clarifying what happened
The statement read: “Ethiopian Flight (ET 901/29 MAY) which departed from Addis Ababa on its way to Lagos had encountered bad weather during landing and made a go-around the airport for better and smooth landing, according to the procedure.
“On a second attempt, it made a safe and normal landing. According to safety standard, pilots are encouraged to make a similar go-around in such cases. However; some media incorrectly reported this standard safety precautionary go-around.
