Read for you/ Aviation Safety: For lack of authorization, ASECNA’s radar is on the ground since 2012

source : gabonreview.com

As part of a project to acquire state-of-the-art radars and air traffic management systems for operational centres in some of its Member States, the African and Madagascar Air Navigation Safety Agency (Asecna) has equipped Gabon with a radar. Since 2012, it has still not been installed due to lack of site.

In Gabon, where they were received on 11 November by the Head of Government, Rose Christiane Ossouka Raponda, the President and CEO of the Agency for the Safety of Air Navigation in Africa and Madagascar (Asecna), accompanied by the Gabonese Minister of Transport, visited the facilities of the Gabonese operational centre. In 2012, the institution implemented a project to acquire state-of-the-art radars and air traffic management systems for the benefit of some of its operational centres, including Gabon.This project was intended to enable the Asecna to use the surveillance means necessary for the visualization of air traffic in the spaces at its expense, but 8 years later, the radar of Gabon was not installed. “The Asecna has fallen considerably behind in the installation of the radar in Libreville,” Asecna’s Executive Director rightly stated, “the situation is quite exceptional.

According to Mohamed Moussa, “the radar, Asecna has paid for it since 2012.” Funded, it is available here in Gabon since 2012 but could not be installed for several reasons, the main one being that the site to install this radar, we could not get permission during all this time,” he explained.

Arriving in Libreville, the idea was to look at this project again. According to the Minister of Transport, the institution finally had the authorization for the installation of said radar with, in the key, a clear identification of the site. He (the radar) will be installed exactly where the delegation to national activities is located. So next to Fly hotel,” said Leon Armel Bounda Balonzi. “This site has already had all the documents for the building permit,” he added. “This radar will increase our capability for air navigation safety. It is an important tool for the country and also strategic,” he said. The radar should be installed by April 2021.