Kolkata: The Airports Authority of India has decided to suspend all landings on the secondary runway following persistent pilot complaints of a malfunction in a critical visual landing guidance system. Consequently, repair work on the primary runway will have to be done in the dead of the night when there are no touchdowns scheduled.
The problem in the precision approach path indicator (PAPI) was first reported by a cargo flight on November 2 when readings on the distance measuring equipment (DME) failed to match the indicators on PAPI and he pulled out of the landing sequence.
PAPI consists of four equally spaced light units next to the runway that are colour coded to provide visual indication. The pilot knows he is on the right glide path when he spots two white lights on the inside and two red lights on the outside.Four red lights mean the aircraft is lower than the desired altitude and will fall short of the runway while four white lights mean the plane is high and will overshoot the runway.
26/11/12 Times of India
