Kolkata: Come Wednesday and the skies over Kolkata will become safer and cleaner, following the adoption of a performance-based navigation system (PNS) involving GPS. Based on fly-by-wire technology that is fitted in most modern aircraft, the device will substantially reduce human error in flight operations during landing and takeoffs.
The resultant reduction in stress on pilots and controllers will enable them to monitor the flights better, either on board or at the air traffic control tower. With aircraft getting to fly on fuel-efficient altitudes, it will lead to savings in millions of litres of aviation turbine fuel, mitigating carbon emission.
The current system is based on verbal communication between the ATC and pilots. Not only do controllers continuously speak to the cockpits, pilots also have to remain attentive.
"During peak hours, its a virtual cacophony on the air waves. Add to this, a high-stress situation and a minor error in communicating an altitude can trigger a disaster. We are moving to a new system that recognizes the capability of aircraft and takes advantage of the superior avionics on board to reduce transmitter chatter," Airports Authority of India regional executive director Gautam Mukherjee said.
Unlike the conventional practice in which the controllers manually guide the aircraft to land and take off, they will hand pre-determined routes to pilots who feed it into the aircraft's fly-by-wire guidance system.
08/03/11 Subhro Niyogi/Times of India
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