BENGALURU: In a significant step towards ensuring that both arrivals and departures of aircraft can take place at the north runway of the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA), the second Instrument Landing System (ILS) has been installed and calibrated successfully by the Airports Authority of India (AAI). For the last five months, only departures have been taking place on the runway to facilitate the installation of these systems.
ILS provides both lateral and vertical guidance to pilots during landing. It is particularly useful in poor visibility conditions, which is a regular annual feature during winters at KIA.
General Manager of AAI Bengaluru, K Anbarasu told TNIE, “We completed the calibration of the second ILS on the north runway (09L) using our aircraft on March 3. With this, both systems have been installed and flight calibrated.” The previous ILS was installed on the right side (27R) of the north runway on January 7 this year.
Flight calibration is a process of verifying, aligning and certifying navigation using specially-equipped aircraft and calibration systems. “Calibration is crucial because the performance of ILS depends on environmental factors and technical issues which can cause misalignment. Such deviations may compromise on safety, leading to unstable approaches or missed landings,” the top official said.
The runway will not be opened for landing immediately. “We should complete some procedures and get necessary approvals from our regulatory authority, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation,” he said.
An airport source said, “There are more procedures involved. It needs to be formatted, aligned and the report published needs to be sent to the DGCA for its approval. At this point of time, we cannot say when the runway will be ready for landing of aircraft. ”BENGALURU: