Posted by Sade Williams
The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria ( FAAN), on Monday, apologised over diversion of two Kano bound flights to Lagos, due to the unserviceability of the runway lights of Runway 06/24.
The Authority in a statement signed by Abdullahi Yakubu-Funtua, Director, Public Affairs & Consumer Protection, however said night operations has since resumed as new cables were installed on Sunday leading to restoration of all runway lights before commencement of night operations.
Yakubu-Funtua explained that on July 15, 2023 at about 1600hrs , the airfield maintenance team of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (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 one’s at runway 06/24.
He added that 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 15th July to 07:00hrs of 16th July, 2023.
“The FAAN regrets any inconvenience caused by the diversion of the 2 Kano bound aircraft to Lagos, due to the unserviceability of the runway lights of Runway 06/24.
“Night operations has since resumed as new cables were installed on Sunday , 16 July , 2023 leading to restoration of all runway lights before commencement of night operations.”, he said.
