Flights grope in dark with archaic systems

V Ayyappan | TNN 

Oct 26, 2008

Chennai: Chennai airport has grown into one of the busiest airport in India, but it seems the airport is still ensconced in a techno time-warp. 

    On Thursday night, an Etihad Airways’ cargo aircraft got into an uncomfortable sniffing distance of a Paramount Airways flight at the airport. 

    So what could

 be reason behind this near-hit? 

    Senior professionals at the airport say the ground movement of aircraft is handled using archaic methods. The absence of modern ground surveillance systems has repeatedly put passenger and aircraft safety in peril. 

    Air traffic controllers (ATC) still continue to depend on the information relayed by pilots, apron staff on aircraft movement along the taxiway using radio telephony and walkie-talkies. 

    Radio telephony becomes unreliable at times because signals become weak at holding points at both ends of the runway — making it impossible to monitor the aircraft taxiing for takeoff and those coming to the apron after landing, says an airport staff. 

    There is no way an ai

r traffic controller or apron staff can monitor vehicles that move about the apron ferrying passengers to aircraft. 

    The ATC tower is located equidistant from the two ends of the runway. Still it is difficult for the controllers to visually monitor aircraft at the Pallavaram end of the runway. 

    Hence, controllers who handle ground movement of aircraft, use binoculars to monitor aircraft that is heading along the taxiway to the Pallavaram end of the runway. 

    As this does not work well when visibility is poor, the personnel in the fire control tower — located close to the Guindy end of the runway — watch over the movement of planes ready for take-off. Similarly, the apron control office, which is located near the taxiway that runs parallel to the main runway o

pposite the Kamaraj domestic terminal, monitors the movement of aircraft along the taxiway and radios the information to the air traffic control. 

    Even these rudimentary systems fail the pilots when heavy rain blankets visibility — as it happened on Thursday night. It was raining heavily and the floodlights were not bright at the holding point near the taxiway that connects the parallel taxiway to the Pallavaram end of the runway. Hence, an Etihad Airways’ cargo aircraft which got the instruction to push back from the cargo terminal and taxi towards the holding point near Pallavaram got too close to a Paramount flight. 

    “The airport here does not have surface surveillance radar that tracks movement of aircraft or vehicles in the taxiway and apron,” said a pilot with a private airline. Confusion occurrs because communication between the pilot and the ATC get affected by weak signals,” he says. 

    Hope these near-hits are not a strong signal of an impending catastrophe.

FOR A SMOOTH TAKE-OFF 

    Pilot contacts surface movement control to get an OK to push back from the bay for taxiing to the runway for take off 

    Surface movement control officer informs the pilot to push back and reach the allotted end of the runway for take-off. The aircraft will be in touch with surface movement controller over radio telephony till the plane reaches the holding point 

    When the aircraft reaches the holding point, surface movement officer hands over control of the plane to ATC 

    Lack of co-ordination between surface surveillance and Air Traffic Control leads to mix-up Manual monitoring of the taxiing aircraft is hard because of poor lighting near the holding point on the runway. 

Surface surveillance radar with 15 sensors will be installed at the airport soon to help monitor movement of all aircraft, vehicles and people inside the airport