Navigational aids in RP airports 'unreliable'

MANILA, Philippines – Due to lack of maintenance, vital navigational and visual aid (navaids) facilities in various international and domestic airports in the country have become unreliable, the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines-Employees Union (CAAP-EU) said yesterday.

The group accused the CAAP officials of failing to maintain the navaid facilities, saying this omission has posed a risk to civil aviation safety.

Cesar Lucero, CAAP-EU vice president, said of the 191 navaid facilities in airports, 175 are unreliable “because they have not been checked and calibrated.”

The navaid equipment and facilities, Lucero said, include the Doppler VHF (very high frequency) Omnidirectional Range (DVOR) stations, distance measuring equipment (DME), precision approach path indicator (PAPI) systems, non-directional beacons (NDBs), glide slope, and localizers.

“These are vital navigational aid facilities and their inspection and calibration should be given top priority by the CAAP,” Lucero said.

He alleged that the CAAP has failed to ensure the calibration of the navaid facilities at the country’s two premier international gateways – the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) and the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) in Clark, Pampanga.

“The navaid facilities at the NAIA and the Clark airport should have been checked and calibrated last October but up to now, wala pa rin (there is still none),” Lucero said.

Lucero said the CAAP’s air traffic controllers reportedly have received numerous complaints from pilots regarding the “wrong signals” or seemingly “unreliable signals” they get from these navaids. – Rainier Allan Ronda