Air Traffic Controllers, others equip with safety management techniques

From Suleiman Idris, Lagos

Air Traffic Controllers (ATCs) and other staff of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) has undergone training in effective Safety Management techniques in Lagos.
The agency said the capacity building is in line with keeping with its determination to build staff capacity for effective service delivery.
Facilitated by Aviation Academy for Southern Africa (AAFSA), the trainings include a three-day workshop on Safety Management Systems (SMS) and a five-day training which focused on the Impact of Human Factor in Air Traffic Management Safety.
While the former was for members of NAMA Safety Action Group (SAG) and selected Air Traffic Controllers in the agency according to their SMS related functions in the field, the latter was targeted strictly at Air Traffic Controllers(ATCs) selected from strategic airports across the country.
The training was to impact basic SMS knowledge to participants and enable them understand the basic concepts, principles, theories, procedures and processes of SMS in aviation.
It also focused on the provisions of the State Safety Programme (SSP) and the SMS Manuals including their interrelationships.
Managing Director of NAMA, Capt. Fola Akinkuotu noted the need to constantly train, and retrain the human person because “only by doing so can we be at par with technology which is also being constantly updated by the passage of each day.”
Akinkuotu said the concept of safety must be understood and imbibed by everybody in the system such that safety issues could be promptly reported by subordinates without fear of reprimand.
Chief Instructor at the workshop, Raymond Wittstock, said the urgency and responsibility of SMS including the seriousness of safety at the airport is what trainings such as this set out to emphasize and reinforce, stressing that the time has come for aviation authorities to ensure the buy-in of all workers in safety management at the airports.