ATC says work conditions are a recipe for disaster

New Delhi: AIR traffic controllers (ATCs) at IGI Airport, who are facing the heat for recent incidents of near-misses and their changing stance on simultaneous use of both runways, have let the Airport Authority of India (AAI) know in no uncertain terms that the current situation is a recipe for disaster.
At the same time they have suggested that the Airports Authority of India (AAI) let them accompany pilots on familiarisation flights so as to understand the problems that arise and help bridge the communication gap.
It is learnt that ATC officials have told the authoritiesthat they are faced with the "worst very high frequency coverage, worst working conditions, and unsafe simultaneous use of both runways, besides extra duties." They said the "negligence" on these issues had "resulted in more than 10 cases of unsafe incidents" of late, both on runways and en route and that the AAI seems to be "waiting for a disaster to take place."
"These issues have been raised several times with the AAI this year but no one seems to be listening. While air traffic has increased exponentially, there are very few ATC officials to handle it with just 50 or so from a total of 200 at Delhi. So even as these 50 or so are putting in extra hours and handling immense air traffic every day, the working conditions are terrible but AAI seems blissfully ignorant," said a senior ATC official.
He admitted, however, that there are human errors at times, owing to tremendous work load.
23/12/07 Anubhuti Vishnoi/Delhi Newsline

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Categories: Airports Dec 2007, Safety Dec 2007