The Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) has confirmed that a fire outbreak at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, destroyed critical air-to-ground communication equipment, forcing air traffic controllers to rely on emergency backup systems to sustain flight operations.
The Managing Director of NAMA, Farouk Umar, disclosed this on Wednesday while assessing the impact of the fire that gutted parts of Terminal 1 on Monday afternoon.
According to him, the incident dealt a major blow to essential infrastructure used for aircraft communication and air navigation services, leading to temporary disruption of operations and flight diversions.
“Let me be honest with you, the fire has affected our air-to-ground communication completely. What you see now sustaining air traffic service is the backup we moved from other locations to keep Lagos running,” Umar said.
He explained that the agency’s management team was in a meeting when news of the fire broke, prompting an immediate emergency response.
“I immediately directed the directors of operations and engineering to the site. What we saw was a huge loss in terms of communication facilities, and air traffic services were seriously disrupted,” he added.
Umar said aviation authorities had no option but to temporarily suspend inbound flights into Lagos at the peak of the emergency to ensure safety while contingency measures were activated.
“We had to halt incoming flights briefly. But the Director of Operations was on ground, and there was a prompt response that stabilised the situation,” he said.
The NAMA boss noted that it would take time to determine the full extent of the damage, adding that comprehensive assessments would be carried out before restoration of the destroyed facilities.
“It will be difficult to immediately quantify the losses. We still have a lot to do after the emergency phase,” he said
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He also disclosed that offices and equipment belonging to the Nigeria Meteorological Agency were among facilities destroyed by the fire.
Despite the scale of destruction, Umar assured passengers and airline operators that Nigeria’s airspace remains safe.
“We are happy to say that communication and air control remain uninterrupted. This shows the professionalism of our personnel. I want to assure Nigerians and the flying public that the airspace remains safe because safety is sacrosanct,” he said.
He added that emergency communication equipment was quickly redeployed from other operational locations, enabling flight operations to resume after the initial disruption.
“No life was lost, and what we are doing now is to improve on our response. Air-to-ground communication will continue without interruption,” Umar stated.