PATNA: Safe landing of flights at the state capital's Jayaprakash Narayan International airport is completely dependent on favourable weather conditions, at least for now.
The airport has been left without navigational, visual and instrumental aids for about two months now. Due to the absence of such aids, landing of flights could be impossible if heavy rain lashes the city.
Patna airport is equipped with Instrument Landing System, ILS CAT-1, which helps planes land safely during poor weather conditions, when visibility is reduced to below 1,600 metres.
As monsoon has reached the state capital and rain consistently lashes the city, visibility at the airport is likely to go down in the days to come, sources at Patna Meterological Office told TOI.
"As heavy to very heavy rain is expected, visibility could go down to 500 metres during monsoon season. Clouds formation also has an impact on visibility reduction," Met officials said.
Currently, planes need a minimum visibility of 2800 metres to land at the city airport. This criterion is easily met in summer and planes do not have any visibility problem in landing. Such a visibility is not generally found during rainy season when visibility drops to as low as 500 metres to 1500 metres.
Unlike Delhi airport which is equipped with advanced ILS-3, the Patna airport's ILS CAT-1 is inadequate to deal with air traffic operations when weather is very poor, sources said.
According to sources, even this ILS CAT-1 system is undergoing some calibration (fine tuning) work to adjust its precision and effectiveness. Even though it has not been working for the past two months, it has not been set right. It is anybody's guess when this will be fully functional once again.
Using a combination of radio signals and high-intensity lighting, an ILS system provides precision guidance to aircrafts approaching and landing on a runway to enable safe landing during reduced visibility due to fog or rain.
"A team of technical experts, who have come from Delhi, are on the job and the ILS CAT-1 system would be functional soon," the airport officials concerned told TOI.
Patna airport has a runway length of 7,500 feet, which is below the ideal 8,000 feet required for the landing of big aircrafts such as Boeing 737 and Airbus A320. Due to obstacles in the approach funnel, planes use just about 5,600 feet during landing from either side.
As the airport has railway line on the northeastern side and Patna zoo on the southern side, there is no room for error or emergency. It was last year declared one of the most critical airports in the country.
The airport has been left without navigational, visual and instrumental aids for about two months now. Due to the absence of such aids, landing of flights could be impossible if heavy rain lashes the city.
Patna airport is equipped with Instrument Landing System, ILS CAT-1, which helps planes land safely during poor weather conditions, when visibility is reduced to below 1,600 metres.
As monsoon has reached the state capital and rain consistently lashes the city, visibility at the airport is likely to go down in the days to come, sources at Patna Meterological Office told TOI.
"As heavy to very heavy rain is expected, visibility could go down to 500 metres during monsoon season. Clouds formation also has an impact on visibility reduction," Met officials said.
Currently, planes need a minimum visibility of 2800 metres to land at the city airport. This criterion is easily met in summer and planes do not have any visibility problem in landing. Such a visibility is not generally found during rainy season when visibility drops to as low as 500 metres to 1500 metres.
Unlike Delhi airport which is equipped with advanced ILS-3, the Patna airport's ILS CAT-1 is inadequate to deal with air traffic operations when weather is very poor, sources said.
According to sources, even this ILS CAT-1 system is undergoing some calibration (fine tuning) work to adjust its precision and effectiveness. Even though it has not been working for the past two months, it has not been set right. It is anybody's guess when this will be fully functional once again.
Using a combination of radio signals and high-intensity lighting, an ILS system provides precision guidance to aircrafts approaching and landing on a runway to enable safe landing during reduced visibility due to fog or rain.
"A team of technical experts, who have come from Delhi, are on the job and the ILS CAT-1 system would be functional soon," the airport officials concerned told TOI.
Patna airport has a runway length of 7,500 feet, which is below the ideal 8,000 feet required for the landing of big aircrafts such as Boeing 737 and Airbus A320. Due to obstacles in the approach funnel, planes use just about 5,600 feet during landing from either side.
As the airport has railway line on the northeastern side and Patna zoo on the southern side, there is no room for error or emergency. It was last year declared one of the most critical airports in the country.
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