20 October 2013
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| The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) announced Sunday the closure of Manila Radar facility for 30-hour preventive maintenance procedure (PMP) beginning 1 a.m. on October 23 until October 24 for a total of 30 hours downtime, according to Deputy Director General Capt. John C. Andrews. The radar shutdown will result in longer separation times between landing and departing flights as it prevents Air Traffic Controllers (ATC) from monitoring aircraft in the air due to repair and overhaul of Manila Approach Radar Antenna Pedestal. Manila Airspace restrictions includes curtailment of aircraft movements in the air that will limit the number of aircraft under ATC control to 11 arrivals and 11 departures per hour from the usual 20 to 25 flights, exclusion of General-Aviation (Gen-Av) flights from using NAIA complex other than emergency. To ease aircraft congestion at NAIA complex, departure flights will be subject to Air Traffic Flow Management (ATFM) release and departure and airlines will be advised of their Estimated Departure Clearance Time (EDCT) while waiting for clearance on the ground. Andrews said all landing and takeoff procedures at NAIA would require visual flight rules (VFR) or “conventional” means, using celestial navigation and Standard Instrument Departure (SID). “International flight schedules will be first priority for arrival and departure sequence,” Andrews said. |
How can a major airport shut down its radar facilities completely ?
ReplyDeleteHow can an airport operator (at the country´s main air access point) run its airport without radar back-up availlable ???
Every sane persone would first repair/replace the existing but (not working) back-up system to have a working back-up availlable during replacement of the main system ...
Only in the Philippines cause it's more fun in the Philippines!
ReplyDeletethere is what you call Standard Instrument Departure where pilots must follow the departure procedure and same goes with STAR procedure for arrival. Anyways, tower is there with a certain distance limit (I forgot how far)
ReplyDelete