Flights grope in dark with archaic systems

Chennai: On Thursday night, an Etihad Airways’ cargo aircraft got into an uncomfortable sniffing distance of a Paramount Airways flight at Chennai airport.
Senior professionals at the airport say the ground movement of aircraft is handled using archaic methods. Air traffic controllers (ATC) still continue to depend on the information relayed by pilots, apron staff on aircraft movement along the taxiway using radio telephony and walkie-talkies.
Radio telephony becomes unreliable at times because signals become weak at holding points at both ends of the runway — making it impossible to monitor the aircraft taxiing for take-off and those coming to the apron after landing, says an airport staff.
There is no way an air traffic controller or apron staff can monitor vehicles that move about the apron ferrying passengers to aircraft.
The ATC tower is located equidistant from the two ends of the runway. Still it is difficult for the controllers to visually monitor aircraft at the Pallavaram end of the runway.Hence, controllers who handle ground movement of aircraft, use binoculars to monitor aircraft that is heading along the taxiway to the Pallavaram end of the runway. As this does not work well when visibility is poor, the personnel in the fire control tower — located close to the Guindy end of the runway — watch over the movement of planes ready for take-off. Similarly, the apron control office, which is located near the taxiway that runs parallel to the main runway opposite the Kamaraj domestic terminal, monitors the movement of aircraft along the taxiway and radios the information to the air traffic control.
Even these rudimentary systems fail the pilots when heavy rain blankets visibility — as it happened on Thursday night.
26/10/08 V Ayyappan/Times of India

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Categories: Airports Oct 2008, Foreign Oct 2008, Paramount Airways Oct 2008, Safety Oct 2008