Workers of the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) say the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, Lands Commission, the Aviation Ministry are complicit in the illegal sale of aviation lands to private and estate developers.

They want key personalities like immediate past Minister for Aviation, Cecilia Dapaah, Aviation Minister, Joseph Kofi Adda and Lands Minister Kwaku Asomah Cheremeh to be held responsible for any air-related accident or serious incident that occurs within Ghana’s airspace.

According to the workers, some flights have been experiencing occasional interruption in communication with air traffic control due to constant interference and heavy background noise on some of the frequencies since October 2, 2020.

They attribute these challenges to the activities of real estate developers around communication systems, navigational aids and surveillance systems on GCAA lands.

A spokesperson for the workers, William Amoako, in an interview with JoyNews, blamed the challenges on the illicit sale of the aviation lands adding that some state institutions are culpable.

“Our investigations have revealed that it is the Lands Commission that has sold the land to private individuals and organizations. The Lands Commission and the Ministry of Lands are the reasons we are at this stage. If they had even involved the Aviation Ministry, these issues would have been raised and they would have been cautious in the sale of the lands,” Mr Amoako explained.

He also expressed worry about the rate at which high-rise buildings are springing up in flight paths at East Legon, the area close the tunnel.

“We have one of our major equipment there, we call it VOR [Very high frequency omni-directional range]. It gives aircrafts bearing and direction, it is one of our vital equipment with a strict installation requirement. When you have high rise buildings which block some of these signals, it affects the reception and everything,” he said.

Aviation experts have also expressed safety concerns about the heavy human activity in the area and how private developers are busily constructing new structures with complete disregard for safety.

 JoyNews’ checks at the La-Nkwantanang and Cantonments lands also owned by the GCAA revealed massive encroachment as construction workers were seen busily putting up new structures.

The GCAA workers have also threatened to withdraw some essential services including air traffic services from Wednesday, 14th October, 2020 to demand the return of lands taken away from the authority.

They are asking government to stop the wanton demarcation and sale of GCAA lands to private developers and its accompanying threat to vital communication, navigation and surveillance equipment and installation.

The workers say they are prepared to follow through with their decision to withdraw the said services unless activities on the lands are stopped immediately.

The group is also demanding that land titles and leases are issued by an Executive Instrument in the name of the GCAA.