VOR Repair completed

MIAA explains reason for diversions

June 23, 2010



Repair of Manila airport's VOR facility was completed at 4 a.m today. A new NOTAM (Notice to Airmen) was issued at 6 a.m. advising airline operators on the restoration of VOR facility effective 9 a.m. today.

It was operating on test mode after it was fixed at 4 a.m. and finding no problems with the radio signal from incoming Philippine Airlines (PAL) flight from the United States, the test mode was shortened to 9 a.m. which is being circulated as the latest NOTAM.

Meanwhile, Airport Manager Melvin Matibag said that flight diversions to Clark airport yesterday, particularly 7 domestic flights of Cebu Pacific was the result of VIP flight of President Gloria Arroyo which arrived from Tacloban and not because of allegations of Airline Pilot Association of the Philippines (ALPAP) that it had non-functioning VOR.

"We had a busy airport yesterday because of the VIP flight. It was just unfortunate that bad weather compounded the situation prompting the flight diversions to Clark" says Matibag.

According to Matibag, aviation protocol dictates that no aircraft shall be permitted to land or depart within 60 minutes or until after the Presidents flight have left the airport or properly docked at its designated contact gate.

2 comments:

  1. Atty Matibag is either clueless or lies through his teeth.

    He castigated Cebu Pacific over flight cancellations, making it seem that NAIA was business as usual that day.

    He blamed an erupting volcano in Iceland for delaying the installation of an ILS in NAIA.

    He then blamed the President for diverting 7 flights on Tuesday, emphasizing the VIP arrival over the fact that the reason why those planes diverted was because weather closed in and, without a ground-based navaid (like Matibag's VOR), could not legally make approaches in anything but VMC.

    Read my lips: It's the VOR, stupid!

    But what do you expect from a professional poker player?

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  2. The newly repaired VOR became inoperable anew Monday June 28, forcing several flights to be diverted to Clark airport.

    The VOR had to be shut down again because foreign technicians from the VOR manufacturer had to replace the parts installed in the system that were borrowed from the Subic airport VOR station.

    The shutdown however coincided with bad weather resulting to poor visibility and prompting arriving airlines to divert to Clark.

    Eight flights were affected.The diverted flights include Emirates Air EK332 from Dubai, Cathay Pacific flight Cx919 from Hong Kong, Philippine Airlines flight PR858 from Cebu, Cebu Pacific flights 5J456 from Iloilo, 5J996 from General Santos, 5J906 from Caticlan, SEAIR flight 2P074 from Virac, and Zest Air Z2231 from from Caticlan.

    PAL flight PR210 from Sydney was also affected but managed to land after holding for one hour. The flight carried Timor-Leste President Jose Ramos Horta which was supposed to land at 5:05 p.m. in Manila but had to circle the Manila airspace until the weather improved. It finally attempted landing on Runway 24 at 6:20 p.m.

    The aircraft landed safely at 6:28pm and docked at bay 49 of Naia Terminal 3.

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