'Cat-scanned' pilots to combat fog

Five hundred more trained fliers to take on low visibility conditions this winterEvery year on most winter mornings the Delhi airport turns into a No Fly Zone. A civil aviation ministry official expressed hopes on Tuesday that things would be decidedly better in the near future. That's because airlines will have the services of as many as 500 more trained CAT II/III B compliant pilots this year.u00a0Representative picLast year the number of trained pilots with the airlines was 1500.u00a0 In January 2010, which was unusually foggy even by north Indian standards, more than 1,000 flights had to be cancelled and more than 200 were diverted.Delhi airport is the one of the worst fog-affected airports in the country and in the world.u00a0 This year the number of trained CAT II/III B pilots is 2048. The flight schedules of aircraft which are not Low Visibility Procedure (LVP) compliant will be reviewed, said the official. Civil Aviation Secretary Naseem Ahmed Zaidi met Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), Airport Authority of India (AAI) and Indian Metrological Department (IMD) on Tuesday.AAI has been asked to prepare a comprehensive document on all Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) on fog management at IGI Airport. DIAL will also finalise the Low Visibility Procedure in coordination with AAI and publish it. There will be a detailed SOP for transfer of international passengers in coordination with stakeholders, the official said. Sources told MiD DAY that AAI will prepare priority setting procedure in departure sequence during and immediately after LVP. AAI shall also keep diversionary airports ready for accepting the diverted aircraft from IGI Airport.Delhi airport is the only one in the country to have Category (CAT) III-B Instrument Landing System, which guides pilots to land in near zero visibility. Now, the airport also has 120 CAT III-B compliant parking bays, up from 55 such bays last year. Clear for take-off CAT IIIB or dense fog condition is when visibility required for the landing is only 50 metres. An Instrument Landing System (ILS) is a ground-based instrument approach system that provides precision guidance to an aircraft approaching and landing on a runway, using a combination of radio signals and, in many cases, high-intensity lighting arrays to enable a safe landing during Instrument Meteorological Conditions (IMC), such as low ceilings or reduced visibility due to fog, rain, or blowing snow.