Jos airport traffic controllers decry bees incessant attacks

Air traffic controllers at Jos Airport in Plateau State have been under the attack of bees for more than a decade.

In fact, an official at the facility was almost killed in the last quarter of 2014 after a large swarm of bees invaded the control tower of the airport.

According to the Nigerian Air Traffic Controllers Association, many airmen have been attacked by bees at the airport, as they called on the Federal Government to urgently address the anomaly to avoid an unwholesome incident.


NATCA, in a statement signed by its President and General Secretary, Victor Eyaru and Banji Olawode, respectively, said, “It is disheartening to note that Jos Control Tower has been invaded by bees for more than a decade without effective action to remedy the situation.

“Many air traffic controllers have been attacked by the bees while at work. We were lucky not to have lost one controller to the bees’ attack in the last quarter of 2014. The Federal Government will do well to urgently intervene to prevent any unwholesome incident.”

The association also revealed that none of the radar facilities within Nigeria’s airspace had backup.

This, they said, often leads to increased air traffic delays and huge revenue loss to airlines whenever there was equipment failure or infrastructure maintenance.

NATCA said, “It is unfortunate that none of the radar facilities within the Nigeria’s airspace has any form of backup. In time of any failures or major maintenance work, this will leave air traffic controllers to revert to the less efficient procedural (non-radar) system of control which invariably increases traffic delay and losses to airline operators.

“Other components of the radar equipment such as Mode S and AFTN has not been activated which are meant to enhance levels of air safety. The association and its members will be grateful if redundancies could be procured for the radar equipment by the Federal Government as it is the global best practice.

“Efforts should also be geared towards activating other important components of the radar equipment and timely completion of the ongoing AIS automation and CPDLC projects. Government should not also lose sight of replacing the present radar equipment with more modern ones before attaining its expiration.”