Mumbai: Mumbai's air traffic controllers have raised serious safety concerns over use of aircraft parking bays in T2's south-east end, which is not covered by surveillance systems and where radio communication with pilots is patchy — factors that make monitoring of plane movements difficult.
The Air Traffic Controllers' Guild has listed the problems, which could cause flight delays, in a letter to the Airports Authority of India (AAI).
The south-east pier is used by Air India and Vistara, and recently Jet Airways moved its planes there, presenting controllers with an even more crowded field to manage without proper eyes and ears on the ground.
On February 23, an Air India plane entering the south-east pier smashed into a light pole, uprooting it. The plane's wing was damaged in the mishap, which occurred when the pilots took the wrong taxiway after apparent miscommunication with the Air Traffic Control (ATC).
"There is no surveillance coverage of aircraft movement in parking stands at south-east pier because installation of 'Multilateration' and cameras is yet to be carried out," guild secretary Manoj Sinha wrote in the letter to AAI.
Multilateration, or MLAT, is a monitoring system that uses a number of ground stations in and around an airport to accurately locate the position of aircraft. It bounces radio waves off passing planes to calculate their position and in most cases, the planes also communicate with the system.
19/03/16 Aditya Anand/Mumbai Mirror
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The Air Traffic Controllers' Guild has listed the problems, which could cause flight delays, in a letter to the Airports Authority of India (AAI).
The south-east pier is used by Air India and Vistara, and recently Jet Airways moved its planes there, presenting controllers with an even more crowded field to manage without proper eyes and ears on the ground.
On February 23, an Air India plane entering the south-east pier smashed into a light pole, uprooting it. The plane's wing was damaged in the mishap, which occurred when the pilots took the wrong taxiway after apparent miscommunication with the Air Traffic Control (ATC).
"There is no surveillance coverage of aircraft movement in parking stands at south-east pier because installation of 'Multilateration' and cameras is yet to be carried out," guild secretary Manoj Sinha wrote in the letter to AAI.
Multilateration, or MLAT, is a monitoring system that uses a number of ground stations in and around an airport to accurately locate the position of aircraft. It bounces radio waves off passing planes to calculate their position and in most cases, the planes also communicate with the system.
19/03/16 Aditya Anand/Mumbai Mirror