Kolkata airport, planes ill-equippedto fight fog

Kolkata: The absence of Category-III instrument landing system (ILS) at Kolkata airport, coupled with inadequacies in aircraft and shortcoming of pilots steering them, has made life miserable for passengers on morning flights this winter.
The ILS was upgraded from CAT-I to CAT-II a couple of years ago, enabling pilots to take off till visibility dropped below 150 metre and touch down till the captain could see 300 metre ahead. Prior to that, a pilot needed clear visibility till 850 metre to land.
But the upgrade has not really helped in Kolkata's weather conditions Unlike the gradual decline in visibility elsewhere,
because visibility here drops rapidly. "It takes 20-30 minutes for visibility to drop from 850 metre to 150 metre. That is the only window of opportunity for pilots to take off. Sometimes, that window disappears before the first scheduled flight of the day," said regional executive director M L Lekhra.
Though an upgrade to CAT-III system will enable flights to operate in near-zero visibility, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) does not consider it a viable optionat the moment.
21/12/11 Times of India

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Categories: airports Dec 2011