The navigation aid used by pilots to land at the city airport is being upgraded and will not be available for the next three weeks. During this time, pilots operating into the airport will have only basic navigation aids to bank on.
The Instrument Landing System (ILS) of main runway 27 became unavailable from 11 am on Thursday, May 17, to 11 am on June 5, said a notice issued by the air traffic control (ATC) at the airport. “New equipment is being installed, after which it will be calibrated before the ILS signals can be switched on,” said a source.
Pilots coming in to land on the main runway 27 will do what is called a ‘VOR/DME aircraft’. It means the aircraft intercepts the radio signal that guides them to the airport, after which the pilots visually look out for the runway and will need to spot it if the aircraft has to continue its descent below 1,070 feet. The airport main runway 09/27 lies in the east-west direction, perpendicular to the coastline. Aircraft that come in to land at the main runway of the airport either fly in from the east or west depending on the direction of the runway in use.
In December last year, a Singapore Airlines pilot coming to land on runway 09 at a time when the ILS signals were switched off flew in from the west over the Arabian Sea. When pilots come in from the west, they spot the Juhu aerodrome runway first. The pilot initially mistook the Juhu runway for the airport runway.
Yet, that is unlikely to happen in case of approach to runway 27. The reason is that an aircraft performing an approach to land on runway 27 comes in from the east and so would encounter the airport runway first.
