A pilot and aviation expert, Benson Ikponwosa on Monday said among the many problems militating against the Nigerian aviation system is the old system of air traffic control.
Speaking as a guest on Channels Television’s breakfast programme, Sunrise Daily, Mr Ikponwosa said as far as the government refuse to insist on adequate trainings for pilots ‘planes will continue to go down’ in Nigeria.
“When they tell Nigerians that now we have radar and radar coverage it is all hogwash,” he said.
Mr Ikponwosa, who was speaking against the backdrop of Saturday’s Helicopter crash which killed the former Kaduna State governor, Patrick Yakowa; former National Security Adviser, Andrew Azazi and their aides, said the Nigerian air traffic control system is “still like when I went to school in 1977.”
The pilot gave an example of the outdated air traffic control system saying “a situation where for example a pilot needs to talk to an air traffic controller and between that pilot and the air traffic controller they happily spend 10 minutes; questions and answers, going back and forth.”
He said this is dangerous because there are so many planes in the air while the air traffic controller goes through his routine of asking irrelevant questions.
Mr Ikponwosa insisted that the only way out of these problems is training and retraining of aviation workers.
