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Unhappy landings this winter too

Amrita Dhar in New Delhi

Flying during the winter months may still be a nightmare for the Indian traveller.

Just 2 per cent of 870 commercial pilots in the three domestic airlines are trained for landing in the Category (CAT) III A version of the Instrument Landing System (ILS), which enables operations even in extremely foggy conditions.

But the civil aviation ministry has decided to take the domestic pilots head-on by saying that it will be mandatory for civilian pilots to qualify in the ILS CAT III A capability.

K Roy Paul, civil aviation secretary, said category III training would be made mandatory for civilian pilots and those who did not qualify should be grounded. This training is a necessity to make civil aviation safer.

Sources in the Indian Commercial Pilots Association, however, said this directive of the ministry would not be accepted.

"Pilots are undergoing training. Things cannot happen overnight," a source said.

That the training was proving to be a painfully slow affair was evident from the fact that Indian Airlines had trained only 18 pilots out of a total strength of 360 even a year after the ILS CAT III A facility was installed at the Indira Gandhi International Airport.

Senior airline officials, however, claimed that the airline was targeting training 72 pilots in this version by mid-December this year.

The private airlines have no plans for any immediate training. Senior Air Sahara executives said the airline was not planning to train pilots in Cat IIIA before next year.

Jet Airways executives also said no decision had been taken in this regard. Jet employs 380 pilots and Air Sahara 130.

The Airports Authority of India, which had earlier issued a notice regarding the non-availability of the ILS Cat III A version, has now decided to withdraw it.

"We are going to issue a notice to all airlines, stating that the ILS Cat III A system is fully operational," P S Nair, airport director at the Indira Gandhi International airport, said.

An ILS Cat III A system allows for landing with a decision height lower than 30 metres but not lower than 15 metres and a runway visual range not less than 200 metres.

The international airport's Runway 28 is the only one in the country with this version. Delhi faces visibility problems due to foggy weather conditions from mid-December.

The private airlines are shying away from training pilots in the ILS CAT III A capability because this is an expensive proposition.

Indian Airlines officials, on the other hand, feel that they do not need to train more pilots because the facility is only available at the Delhi airport.

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