Trees blind Diu ATC, man runs for daily alert

Ahmedabad Every day, minutes before 8:30 am, a fire official runs towards the runway at Diu airport. The moment he spots an aircraft in the horizon, he would radio the Air Traffic Controller (ATC) that a flight is visible and ready to land.
Welcome to Diu airport!
The ATC tower at the union territory’s airport, built by its erstwhile Portuguese rulers in 1954, is covered under tall trees from where flight movements are not visible, and hence the human intelligence.
The only relief is that there is only one commercial flight (ATR-78 seat) which lands at this airport at 8:30 am.
“Otherwise, things would have been difficult. Such practices (going to the runway to inform the flight position before landing) are still in vogue at other airports, but only when the visibility is low because of bad whether. But at Diu airport, it is a daily problem. We have requested the local administration to chop off some of the trees but nothing has been done so far,” sources at Diu airport said.
Local authorities say that since there is only one flight, there is no need to cut down the trees.
02/03/12 Satish Jha/Express India

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Categories: airports Mar 2012, Safety Mar 2012