FAAN Diverts Kano-bound Aircraft To Lagos Over Poor Runway Lighting

The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has diverted Kano bound flights from  Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano to Murtala  Muhammed International Airport, Lagos over runway lighting that occurred at the Kano airport.

FAAN in a statement by director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection, Abdullahi Yakubu-Funtua, said the service has been restored.

Funtua explained that the glitch which occurred on Runway 06/ 24 at about 1600hrs on July 15, 2023, was discovered after the daily maintenance had been carried out.

He said the management of the airport  decided to call for activation of a Notice to Air Men (NOTAM) to allow for repairs after efforts made to restore power failed.

“On July 15, 2023 at about 1600hrs, the airfield maintenance team of FAAN observed that the runway lighting would not come on after the scheduled daily maintenance work of replacing old and weak Airfield cables with new ones at runway 06/24. 

The maintenance team immediately initiated fault finding procedures along the cable route to identify the problem and restore power to the airfield lighting circuit.”

“It was, however, observed that the entire runway circuit was affected, leading to the failure of the Runway 06/24 edge light, the Taxiway Alpha edge light, PAPI and signage .

“As at 1900hrs local time, the fault had yet to be isolated and power supply to the runway could not be restored leaving Runway in a total blackout which affected night operations. Arriving flights had to be diverted to alternate airports.*

“At 2300hrs, after all efforts to restore power supply to the runway failed, Operations department initiated a NOTAM action for the closure of Runway 06/24 between the hours of 2300hrs on July 15, to 07:00hrs of July 16, 2023,” Funtua explained.

The FAAN regretted  inconvenience caused by the diversion of the two Kano bound aircraft to Lagos due to the unserviceability of the runway lights of Runway 06/24.

He said, ”night operations has since resumed as new cables were installed on Sunday,  July 16 , 2023 leading to restoration of all runway lights before commencement of night operations.”