Pilot contacted Obudu airstrip before plane disappeared - Air traffic engineers

Shola Adekola, Lagos - 25.03.2008

Nine days after the Beechcraft belonging to Wings Aviation with three crew members on board disappeared, members of the National Association of Air Traffic Engineers (NAAE) on Monday disclosed that the aircraft was duly handed over to the Obudu airstrip before it was reported missing from the airspace.

President of NAAE, Ifeanyi Nwankwo, who made this known to journalists at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja, explained that Enugu was the last airport that got in touch with the missing aircraft.

According to Nwankwo, as of that time, the aircraft was maintaining 250 left while Enugu area control gave the pilot clearance to descend after which he got contact with the radio operator in Obudu.

The NAAE president said the pilot reported two ways contact with Obudu airstrip which belongs to the Cross River State government and, thus, ended the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency’s(NAMA) business with the aircraft.

“That airstrip is not an airport; it is not charted, so it is like whoever is flying to that airstrip has its own responsibility for whatever happens. At the point he reported two ways contact with Obudu, NAMA’s business was finished, it had no responsibility any longer,’’ Nwankwo said.