Aviation


 
(NIGERIA)    
Airlines Raise Alarm Over Visa Delay for Trainees
Nigerian airlines are experiencing difficulties in securing visa interview appointments for their pilots and engineers who are due for flight simulator training in France as the embassy is allegedly not responding to requests promptly and positively.

Investigations by our correspondent at some of the airlines revealed that where pilots are due for their recurrent flight simulator training, which comes every six months, getting them to France where the facilities are available has been becoming herculean due to difficulties in securing appointments for visa interviews at the embassy.

The implication is that pilots who are due for the training will have to wait longer before carrying it out. In the alternative airlines may have to seek alternative training centres for their staff at costlier fees which may at the end of the day be borne by passengers through increased air fare. Sources at Aero disclosed that currently over 30 staff of the airlines have been waiting for some time now to get visa appointments to enable them proceed to France for their flight simulator training.

Other embassies apart from the French embassy are also said to be proving difficult in ensuring that Nigerian pilots secure visas for their flight simulator training. Nigeria does not have flight simulator facilities.

A flight simulator is a system that tries to copy or simulate the experiences of flying an aircraft. It is as realistic as possible. The different types of flight simulator range from video games up to full-size cockpit replicas mounted on hydraulic (or electromechanical) actuators, controlled by state of the art computer technology. Flight simulators are used to train flight crews in normal and emergency operating procedures. Using simulators, pilots are able to train for situations that are unsafe in the aircraft itself. These situations include engine failures and failures or malfunctions of aircraft systems such as electric, hydraulics, pressurization, flight instruments and so forth.

 Jeff Oguike


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