Chennai airport gets new navigation equipments
Posted on: 14/Dec/2015 6:18:01 PM
The floods that forced the Chennai city airport to be shut have taught many lessons to it! As a precautionary measure, authorities are devising plans to install a backup for VOR (VHF Omnidirectional Range), navigation equipments and others that help aircraft fly as always without any discomfort.
The recent flood here has damaged two VOR navigational equipments. As there was no backup, the flight movements had to get stopped. It took two days for the one near main runway to get repaired. The other one near second runway is however not in good shape and the engineers are involved in repairing it.
This new VOR will serve as a backup for the existing one. This can be of help in guiding plans to the second runway that presently doesn`t have any navigation, said a senior official. This new VOR is thought of to get installed at a higher elevation than the current flood mark for preventing shutdown of the airport.
The equipment will be brought from Allahabad. The equipment restoration after floods was really hectic for the Airport Authority of India (AAI). The signals sent by VOR are helpful for the aircraft to identify the airport. It hovers while traversing the peninsula. It is based on these navigational equipments and radio signal, voice signal, data and code emitted by these that the air routes are designed. It is very crucial to have VOR and its advanced versions as flights make use of them as reference points for identifying airports.
If there is repeated rain showers and release of water from the Chembarambakkam reservoir, it may largely affect the airport. The recent flood in Chennai has taught the lesson so clearly! We however don`t want the navigation system to get damaged, said an official. The officials have already suggested increasing the height of radar.
