NEW DELHI: Skilled air traffic controllers at IGI Airport averted disaster on Friday afternoon after radar screens at the airport's ATC tower went blank for 45 minutes because electricians on routine maintenance duty had inadvertently switched off the main power button.
The power shutdown caused both primary and back-up radar systems to go dead. These systems give the complete coordinates - such as altitude, speed and horizontal separation - of all aircraft over vast stretches of north India, and are essential guiding tools to avoid mid-air collisions. When the screens went blank, one aircraft was in its final descent over IGI.
ATC officials saved the day by manually bringing in arriving aircraft. All departing aircraft were asked to remain on the ground. An Air India and a Jet Airways aircraft were even given priority landing after the pilots reported fuel shortage. No plane was asked to go around the airport.
The Maharaja just got a firsthand taste of why passengers are not exactly enamoured by its services. On Thursday-Friday midnight, 11 of the 63 staff who were supposed to be present at Delhi's terminal 3 were missing and only 16 of the 25 check-in counters that should have been open were actually functional. As a result, the usual check-in time of two to three minutes per passenger was almost seven to eight minutes.
The airline came to know of this ground reality - something that passengers have been complaining of for years - when the management kicked off a new practice of sending its senior officials as decoy passengers to airports from IGI on Thursday night. The team that went to IGI Airport's terminal 3 gave a detailed report to the management which has now decided to make such surprise checks a regular practice at all airports across the country.
"Our ground handling joint venture agency, AISATS, services a number of airlines. It seems their employees reserve their best for other airlines and not for handling AI flyers. The team found there were no floor walkers at T3 on Thursday-Friday midnight to escort passengers to their aircraft. The check-in time was longer that the global average of two to three minutes,” said a source. Wheelchairs, which are required by physically challenged and aged flyers right from the time they alight from their cars at the airport, were to be found at check-in counters!
The airline is also trying to strengthen its other perceived weakness: on time performance.
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