Frequent Aircraft Runway Excursions At Lagos Airport Worry Stakeholders

In less than one year, three aircrafts have been involved in runway excursion on the runway 18L of the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos.

These aircrafts have skidded-off the runway and gotten trapped on the grass verge. These frequent excursions have, however, been a source of concern to aviation stakeholders who demand government action to forestall future occurrence.

According LEADERSHIP reports, a United Nigeria Airlines plane skidded-off the runway, on Friday, September 8, 2023, at around 6:33 pm. The plane, an Embraer ERJ145, with registration number 5N-BWY, was carrying 51 passengers and four crew members en route from Abuja to Lagos. Also, on 23rd April, 2024, a Dana MD-82 aircraft with 83 passengers and registration number 5N BKI flying from Abuja to Lagos, skidded off of the runway. The airline said the aircraft which flew from Abuja to Lagos, had all passengers and crew safe from any casualty.

However, aviation experts have attributed the frequent runway excursions during rainfall to aquaplaning and asked whether the runway has been derubberised.

Speaking, to me, the general secretary, Aviation Round Table Initiative (ARTI), Olumide Ohunayo, said the Xejet airline incident had shown that Dana Airline was vilified and the decision taken by the Minister against the airline was hasty.

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Ohunayo, the head, Research & Corporate Travel at Zenith Travel & Consul, said there is need to probe the runway.

“Before now, the airlines have been vilified. We have told the world that the problem is from the airline especially concerning the directives of the Minister on Dana Air. Now, we need to look at the runway, because this is the same runway, weather and wet conditions that the aircraft are skidding off.

“Now, we need to look at the approach path management, what happened at the period between the tower and pilot in command. The runway in particular, we need to know why it is always when it’s raining and wet that aircraft skid off.

Also speaking, the chief operating officer, Centurion Aviation Security and Safety Consult, Capt John Ojikutu (rtd), questioned the genuine derubberisation of the Lagos airport runway.
He also questioned the adequate and skilled manpower to do the necessary oversight in the auditing, inspections and checks on all the Civil Aviation Operators in the sector.

“What does that tell us? FAAN had claimed that it did the derubberization of runway two days before the incident (on the Sunday preceding Tuesday the incident day). I have asked before following the Dana incident. Who did the derubberization of the runway?

“Was the agent certified for the job by the NCAA? Was the NCAA informed before or after the derubberization and had conducted inspection before the runway was opened for air traffic landing? Did the NAMA controllers conduct any inspection on the runway after the derubberization before the clearing of aircraft to be landing on the runway? Many questions to ask FAAN the service provider and the NCAA the oversight and enforcement authority of the regulations standards and the best practices. Is the Minister, Festus Keyamo, learning anything from these happenings?” he ended rhetorically.