Airport functions without radar

Due to this breakdown the controllers have adopted procedural control where the controller has to completely rely on what the pilot of the aircraft says regarding distance and altitude.

The arrival and departure of all flights from Delhi has been delayed by over 15 minutes since January 25, when the gear of the antennae broke.

“We need to be 300 per cent more alert in the control tower as everything is now happening in accordance with what the pilot says about the route and altitude,” pointed out a controller on duty adding that they feel more fatigued and stressed.

As a result of this problem an aircraft could stray into prohibited air space such as the one over Rashtrapati Bhavan, but the ground staff will remain unaware as they cannot check or monitor the movement on the screen. “Besides, the communication problem with some pilots from the Slavic countries continues and is compounded during such times as they fly on their own routes,” lamented a controller.

“We have our technical and maintenance staff working hard on the equipment which is over three decades old,” said an Airports Authority of India spokesman adding that they hoped to rectify the fault by tomorrow evening.

“Procedural control is being followed by the ATCOs and safety is not being compromised,” said AAI Member Planning K. Ramalingam adding that in many airports without a radar procedural control was being followed.

The new state-of-the-art Raytheon radar which was to be first commissioned in October 1995 is not yet ready for use as four major tests conducted on the equipment have failed.

Meanwhile, amidst all this confusion, the Air Traffic Controllers (ATCOs) Guild has decided to delay all departures from all over the country for four hours everyday starting on January 30.

“We have to resort to this again as the AAI does not pay any heed to our requests and letters based on the implementation of the recommendations of the Lahoti Committee report,” said general secretary of ATCO guild B.Shekhar.