Aircraft are making flights to and from Shahjalal International Airport amid risks as the only radar system has turned obsolete.
The installation of a new radar is still a far cry so far as initiatives over the last seven years are concerned.
Presently, about 200 flights take off from and land at the airport every day while its number is on the rise.
Mostafizur Rahman, an operation and planning member of Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh, admits that the existing radar system is not working well.
The regulatory body is trying to install a new radar with utmost priority, but the project is stuck in bureaucratic red tape, he told the Dhaka Tribune recently.
The existing radar, which has long gone obsolete, cannot manage air traffic properly, he said.
Sometimes it fails to detect air traffic uninterruptedly. It operates for only 12 hours a day, putting thousands of passengers travelling every day at risk.
The radar is not operated on Saturdays.
“On every flight, we have to land the aircraft without the support of the radar. Most of the time we take off on manual mode as technological support is absent – which may cause an accident at any time,” a captain of Biman Bangladesh Airlines told the Dhaka Tribune on condition of anonymity.
A pilot of a private airlines also said the lack of support from the existing radar causes requiring extra time to land.
“Sometimes it so happens that several aircraft remain in the queue to land. It is not possible to manage such air traffic with such an obsolete radar system,” he added.
The existing radar was set up in 1986.
Currently, the airport’s surveillance system is capable of monitoring 200 nautical miles of airspace.
Many flights operating on new routes over the sea or flying low over the Bay of Bengal and over Sylhet, Rangpur, Chittagong and Cox’s Bazar areas can evade CAAB monitoring.
A CAAB official said it has happened several times that two aircraft in Shahjalal Airport narrowly escaped collision in the sky.
So, CAAB should take step on an emergency basis to remove the outdated radar to avoid such collision in the sky of Dhaka, he suggested.
Requesting anonymity, a senior pilot of Biman, who has been working for the national flag carrier for 25 years, told the Dhaka Tribune that a vehicle can easily go to Mohakhali from Banani in the city and it can move towards Mohakhali through Gulshan and Tejgaon link road also.
“But if you have a modern radar, it can ensure smooth landing which is much easier, time saving and fuel saving,” he said.
Air Commodore (retd) Iqbal Hussain, former chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh, said in developed countries aircraft can land or take off even at zero visibility during heavy fog.
“But, landing and take-off is not safe for aircraft under this radar,” he said. “So, we should immediately install a radar with the latest technological features.”
Foreign airlines will not use the country’s air navigation services after 2015 if Shahjalal Airport is not updated in line with the regulations of the International Civil Aviation Organisation.
