KENYA: Two Planes Narrowly Avoid Crashing Mid Air In Naivasha, Pilot Climbed 38,000 Feet In 5 Minutes

Two passenger planes missed each other in the Kenyan airspace by a minute last week, averting what would have been one of the world's worst aviation accidents.

The near-collision, at Naivasha, 100 kilometres west of Nairobi, was prevented when the pilot of one of the planes, upon receiving a warning from the inflight traffic collision system made a sudden climb to avoid the oncoming flight.

The incident, involving an Ethiopian Airways plane and an Italian leisure airline flight, has become a major point of discussion in aviation circles, and has led to a blame game between Kenya and Ethiopia.

On Wednesday August 29, the Ethiopian Airlines flight number ET858, a Boeing 737-800, registration number ET-ASJ left Johannesburg for Addis Ababa at 2100 hours.

Its flight time was five hours, 12 minutes cruising at a calibrated altitude of 37,000 feet.

On the same day at 18:00 hours, an Italian leisure airline Neos Boeing 767-306R flight number NOS252, registration I-NDOF had left the Italian city of Verona heading to Zanzibar.

Its flight time was eight hours before it made its first landing in Zanzibar.

At 00:49 hours, both aircraft were in Kenyan airspace, at the same altitude, with the Italian aircraft having entered from the Ethiopian airspace, while the Ethiopian Airlines from the Tanzania airspace. They were flying towards each other.

The Traffic Collision Avoidance System is built in planes to monitor the airspace around an aircraft for other aircraft equipped with an equivalent active transponder.

The system, which is independent of air traffic control, warns pilots of the presence of other aircraft.

The TCAS Resolution Advisory alerted the Ethiopian airline crew about the impending mid-air collision and the pilot climbed to 38,000 feet in just one minute (at 00:50 hrs).

He maintained the altitude for five minutes, avoiding a collision.

Kenya's air traffic controllers seem to be blaming the incident on a strike by Ethiopian air traffic controllers.

The Italian airliner approached and entered the Kenyan airspace from the Westside using 370L but it wasn’t informed by the Ethiopian air control that an ET flight was also using the same altitude East side as it crossed over Kenya heading to Addis.

This was a serious breach of safety, a source in the Kenyan aviation sector said.

The source said the Ethiopian air traffic controllers had began their strike four days prior to the near-crash, and failed to honour the co-ordination procedures agreed between Nairobi and Addis Ababa on air traffic navigation and management.

The day after the near mishap, the Kenya Air Traffic Controllers’ Association warned that flights going into and out of the Addis Ababa airspace were not safe.

We have seen some eastbound flights coming in with westbound flight levels while some westbound flights have eastbound levels, increasing chances of serious air misses, the association president Peter Ang’awa said.

He continues to say that they were concerned about serious safety issues they have noted in the past few days after their Ethiopian counterparts went on strike.

The Ethiopian Air traffic controllers had for the second time in three months, downed their tools on August 25, demanding a salary rise, better working conditions and overtime pay.

In April, the same airport staff went on strike resulting in dozens of flight delays.

Mr Ang’awa said the Ethiopian traffic controllers did not provide proper standard separation in last week’s incident.

We saw flights from Addis Ababa calling the Nairobi Control without prior estimates, with the possibility of creating serious air-misses with known traffic at the transfer point given that they were entering our airspace with wrong levels.

This was the issue with the ET and Neos, which both maintained FL360 with no prior co-ordination and no estimates from Addis Ababa control.

Were it not for the TCAS, the story would have been different, he said.

However, a pilot says that if the planes were in Kenyan airspace, then they were under Kenya's Air Traffic Control (ATC), which should have guided them accordingly and warned them that they were going to cross each other’s flight path.

Collison is difficult in this age. Throughout the flight you are under ATC, and you're given ‘separation’ so that you don't collide with another plane," he said.

In a situation like last week's, the pilot must react immediately to save the passengers and crew.

The passengers would feel the sudden jerk, but at such a point it is not a matter of comfort. It is about avoiding a collision.

The Kenya Civil Aviation Authority Director General Captain Gilbert Kibe declined to comment on the incident, only stating that everything was now in order.

As it is, things are now okay and I will not comment on this, Capt Kibe said on the sidelines of the Africa Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation conference in Mombasa.

Mid last week, the Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority (ECAA) rejected the Kenyan air controller’s claim, saying its control centre is manned by capable air traffic controllers.

He insisted that the approach and aerodrome positions within its airspace are also manned with professionals possessing all the qualifications.

We reject the false and baseless statements circulated by the Kenyan Air Traffickers Controllers Association.

Our Area Control Centre in Addis Ababa is being manned by adequate number of well-trained, highly capable instructors and professionals with the necessary ratings and validations in accordance with International Civil Aviation Organisation Annex 1 provisions.

To date, we have not received any complaints by any airlines operating to/from Ethiopia or over flying our airspace, ECAA said in a statement, adding that all its air traffic control activities and communications are recorded and protected, and can be verified if need be.

Ethiopia has since arrested nine Ethiopian air traffic controllers alleged to be leading the work boycott, with the Police deputy commissioner Tekolla Ayfokiru saying the nine workers were preventing international flights from landing at the Bole International Airport, the country’s busiest hub.

Some of the employees engaged in the illegal strike are returning to work. The remaining should submit a letter of apology and return to their work.

They have until Tuesday (September 4), the head of ECAA, Col Wesenyelew Hunegnaw said, adding that a salary review was ongoing.

Throughout the flight the pilot is under the Air Traffic Control. The control gives you a squawk, a four letter code which you feed into your transponder.

The ATC will see you on the radar and is able to monitor your speed and height. As the pilot leaves the airspace of one country, Flight Information Region he or she is handed over to the ATC of the next country.

Under the American Federal Aviation Authority Aviation regulations, large passenger aircraft are required to be at least five kilometres apart horizontally or 1,000 feet vertically.

The pilot must communicate on radio until he reaches a different country’s airspace, during which he is handed over by the Air Traffic Control of the new airspace.


Tourism Observer

KENYA: What About Kenya Airways

The news from Kenya Airways is bad. It registered a staggering Ksh26.2 billion ($262 million) loss this past year. M
ore than the staggering loss of the previous year. Despite reports that its passenger numbers were up by 4 million.

That its income from handling was also up. That, relative to the previous year, its revenues were up by Ksh6 billion ($60 million).

It took drastic cost-cutting measures. It sold its parking slot at Heathrow Airport. It sold two of its planes. None of which has made a difference.

The public has a stake in KQ. Partly because we still publicly own about a quarter of it. Partly because individual Kenyans are shareholders in it. Partly because, as its slogan proclaims, it’s meant to be the “Pride of Africa.”

But it isn’t. Anecdotally, that accolade is increasingly given to Ethiopian Airways.

Both airlines, together with South African Airways, have significantly opened Africa up to itself. No more travelling to Europe to come back down in West Africa.

No more matatu-like, nerve-wracking (if entertaining) experiences in cross-continental travel on the infamously named “Air Peut-Etre” – Air Maybe, meaning maybe the plane will arrive, maybe it won’t.

Maybe your suitcase will make it on board, maybe it won’t. Maybe it’ll take off on time, maybe it won’t. Maybe it’ll get you there safely, maybe it won’t.

Travelling west was hair-raising till the mid-1990s, when finally those three airlines made it a predictable process. In KQ’s case, enabled by the KLM partnership.

Initially, at least, that partnership also ended the political annoyances that previously accompanied any KQ travel.

Like heading to the airport for a plane down south, only to be held hostage at the airport, together with a couple hundred other passengers, for almost half a day. Why? A Kenyan minister had commandeered the plane.

So the goings-on of the past year or so are disturbing. Many explanations have been given. That the investments in new planes to service all the new African routes (as well as new routes into Asia) always meant a dip in profitability.

That loans for those investments, being dollar-denominated (at interest rates inexplicably well above European averages) meant huge exchange losses as the shilling steadily depreciated.

That fuel hedging — to protect us from oil price volatility — instead locked us into fuel prices well above the current prices.

It’s hard to make sense of. But what we can make sense of is relative costs and relative comforts. From a consumer perspective, KQ is increasingly not the best bet.

Its tickets are consistently higher than other options; it only retains its customer base because many like flights that are as direct as possible. Its comforts are ever more Spartan, annoyingly so.

KQ’s cost-cutting gurus may think we don’t notice the absence of salads or cheese or the overall shift in airline food suppliers to companies associated with the political who’s who. But we do.

They may also think we don’t notice the headsets that never get fixed. But we do. Or the second-rate entertainment products (despite the admirable push for more Kenyan content). But we do. Or the steady creep back of flight delays. But we do.

Unless delays and pricing go down, while services go up, KQ’s supposedly increased customer base will not be sustained.

NIGERIA: Airlines Remit $5.57bn Yearly From Ticket Sales In Nigeria

More than 27 foreign airlines flying into Nigeria are remitting over $5.556 billion yearly from the sales of ticket, an aviation expert, Mr. Gbenga Olowo, president of Sabre Network (West Africa), has said. He noted that out of the 48,433 seats available in the international weekly flights from four airports in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt and Kano, Arik Air controls only 3,889.

Olowo lamented that Nigeria had not been able to reciprocate traffic rights to most of the partnering countries. According to him, “this has resulted in huge negative balance of trade against Nigeria. This has brought about capital flight. It has put strong pressure on the naira by weakening the exchange rate.

This aids unemployment as Nigerian airlines’ growth remains stunted.” Olowo, who said that African Airlines had been regarded as too small, weak and fragmented, said that the option for them was to come out of the woods and merge or consolidate. The president urged the Federal Government to reverse all Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA) and the negative balance of trade.

He explained that the bilateral, multi-lateral, three layers of air services agreements and open skies agreement, which Nigeria entered into, had created a window of opportunity for foreign carriers to come to Nigeria from multiple points. Olowo said that the multiple points entry by foreign carriers had eroded the operational capacity of the domestic airlines. He noted the objective of the balance of trade had not been achieved.

In a paper he delivered at the 10th African Air Transport Safety & Security Summit, held in Accra, Ghana, with theme: “Building Strong Carriers in Africa: A case study of Nigeria,” Olowo explained that the era of stand-alone was no longer realistic as airlines all over the world are partnering, merging and consolidating to be profitable.

He added regional integration, bridging infra-structure gap (ICT, power, transport, water & sanitation) were the key to sustaining profitable airlines on the continent. Olowo stressed that Nigeria and, indeed, African airlines, must collaborate to succeed. He said: “Africa only holds about three per cent of passenger traffic and about two per cent of cargo in the global air transport equation.

The share of (the global) market African airlines have is diminishing. African airlines are mainly small, weak and under capitalised with poor management. “Twenty-five years ago, there were close to 50 African carriers that were members of International Air Transport Association (IATA); that number has now dwindled to about 20.

“Investments in fuel-efficient aircraft are among the reasons for a 1.7 per cent improvement in fuel efficiency the industry has seen lately.” He added that LAM Mozambique, Air Rwanda, Kenya Airways and Ethiopian Airways had embarked on aircraft modernization by acquiring new models , including the fuel efficient Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

TANZANIA: Tanzania Visa Requirements For Nigerian Travelers

Contrary to what most people think, a visa is required by Nigerians as well as many other countries including the United States for entry into Tanzania.

Visa is issued at the Tanzania High Commission in Abuja ONLY.

This grants tourists and other type of visitors the authorization to enter the country through designated entry ports; airports and harbour stations.

However, for travelers coming from countries that do not have designated embassies or commissions, they will be issued visa at the entry ports in Tanzania.

There are no direct flights from Lagos to Dar Es Salaam. Airlines like Ethiopian, Emirates and Kenya Airways ply that route from Nigeria for as low as N120,000 depending on the travel dates.

Below are the visa requirements for Nigerians;

Two passport photographs
A valid International Passport (Valid for at least 3 months from date of application)
An introduction letter.
An Invitation letter (If you are being invited over) or Confirmed Hotel Reservation.
Confirmed Flight Reservation
Visa Fee: ( Cash Payment is made at the High Commission)
A valid Yellow Fever Card (This is mandatory and cannot be excused)
All copies of any previous Visa Rejection Notice from any other Embassy
Bank statement (Not compulsory though)

Visa Fee(s)

Regular Fees: ₦11,150 for holiday, visit, conference, workshop and official. ₦19,800 for business
Express Fees: ₦15,500 for holiday, visit, conference, workshop and official ₦25,500 for business

Opening days: Monday to Friday from 8:00am – 3:00pm

Visa Fees should be paid at any UBA Bank Plc after verification of visa application documents at the Tanzania High Commission

Note:

The commission do not have an office in Lagos, only in Abuja.
Yellow fever vaccination card id required
All refusal notice from other embassies are required
Courier applications are not acceptable
Application should be made in person except for Government Officials, Agencies and Religious Groups
No Visa appointment booking is required
All applications should be submitted before 12:00 noon
Passport collection will be done from 2:00pm Monday – Friday
Visa process/issue will take two working days upon submission

Abuja High Commission:

No 21, Yedseram Street (Opposite ALGON Building, by IG House), Maitama, Abuja

Note: you can contact visa@flynaija.com if you need us to help with the hotel and flight reservation or help with entire process.