'There was really no such thing as weather forecasting as none of the airports had communication with each other '

'There was really no such thing as weather forecasting as none of the airports had communication with each other '

Mike Mahon remembers the flying conditions in Nigeria.

Mike Mahon

Trinity College Dublin

1965

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Mike Mahon

Work and Employment

Life Story

Nigeria

1960s

Flying conditions in Nigeria were appalling. We had all sorts of weather conditions to deal with. During the 'Harmattan' sand storms were blown down from the Sahara reducing visibility to nil. And then came the rainy season and hugh squall lines of thunderstorms would build up in the north and then sweep southwards at night. These CB's could go up to 45. 000 feet, unlike anything encountered in Europe , with vicious up and down draughts, and one of our aircraft was severely damaged trying to fly through one. I t was so severe that the pilots later reported that they experienced ' eye ball bounce' and were unable to read the cockpit instruments. On another occasion the roof was blown completely off the terminal at Madugary Airport . Weather reporting by ATC was extremely hit or miss. If he had no other reports the air traffic controller would quite happily give out the previous days weather. We became very skeptical on getting good, CAVOK, weather report and often had to ask simple questions like , 'is it raining at the field, are there CB's, thunderstorms in the area, can you see the runway from the tower?' There was really no such thing as weather forecasting as none of the airports had communication with each other. Also the airports were subject to frequent power failures where all navigation equipment and radios would fail. This left us no option but to overshoot and divert to another airport.

Irish Research Council for Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences (IRCHSS)

Dr Kathleen McTiernan (Trinity College Dublin)

Dr Deirdre O'Donnell (Trinity College Dublin)