Planes fail to land at Malawi’s Chileka airport

Bad weather coupled with the failure of airport navigation aid system to direct landing on the runway system on Monday resulted in planes failing to land at Chileka Airport in Blantyre.
Acting Airport Commandant Alex Jabu said the navigation aid system which the airport uses could not detail how the planes should land since the pilots’ visibility was 50 metres in fog.
“The airport has Instrument Landing System (ILS) category 1, which is not functioning. Even if it was functioning planes, could not have landed because the weather was beyond the capacity of the gadget to control landing at the airport,” Jabu said.
He added that the foggy weather in Blantyre from the month of May to July every year forces planes at times to fail to land since pilots do not see the runway.
“We experience huge fog that requires the airport to have ILS category 111 C which our colleagues use in Europe. Those instruments help to publish landing procedures on Aeronautical Information Publication (AIP) in a plane which guides pilots how to land,” he explained.
When asked why they are not using this machine which government bought some time back, Jabu said authorities at the civil aviation headquarters in Lilongwe could be better placed to explain.
He said the airport uses outdated equipment adding that the approach lights system which direct the pilot to the runway system are also not functioning.
Chief Aerodrome Officer at Civil Aviation Department in Lilongwe Oxford Mtambo when asked about the matter referred the matter back to Chileka Chief Airport Commandant.
While a number of planes failed to land during the day, others started landing at the airport after 4:30 pm.
Malawian Airlines Public Relations Officer Maganizo Mazeze said their main worry was on passengers who had to be flown to Lilongwe instead of their Blantyre destination.
(BNL Times)