MsemajiUkweli
JF-Expert Member
- Jul 5, 2012
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Dar es Salaam. The Tanzania Civil Aviation Authority (TCAA) confirmed yesterday that the radar at Julius Nyerere International Airport has not been working for two weeks.
TCAA Director General Fadhili Manongi spoke in Dar es Salaam after The Citizen reported exclusively yesterday that the system broke down on August 3, forcing air traffic controllers to provide air traffic management services without using radar.
Mr Manongi said they had asked Britains BAE Systems to supply the equipment whose failure caused the equipment to stop working.
The radar was bought from BAE Systems, and we have already asked the firm to supply us with new equipment to replace the damaged one. A radar, just like any other complex piece of equipment, can fail without warning, he said.
Mr Manongi added that they had also contacted a South African company to see whether the radar could be repaired temporarily ahead of the arrival of spare parts from Britain, adding that the repair by BAE Systems was estimated to cost Sh400 million.
He allayed fears that Tanzanian skies were not safe following the breakdown, saying there were contingency measures to deal with such situations and promised that the radar would be fixed within two weeks.
A source told The Citizen on Thursday that the radar experienced power supply failure since August 3, rendering it useless and cautioned that if the situation continued for long, major airlines will stop flying to JNIA for safety reasons.
Major airlines that fly to and from JNIA include British Airways, Qatar Airways, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Swiss International Airlines, Emirates, South African Airways and Ethiopian Airlines.
The sources said air traffic controllers at the airport had for the past two weeks been using procedural control, which is a method of providing air traffic control services without the use of radar.
They said the method was unpopular with most pilots, who are used to radar and the Global Positioning System (GPS).
With radar, an air traffic controller can see all planes flying in our airspace on the screen. Without this facility, air traffic controllers are reduced to relying on guesswork, which is very dangerous, a source said.
The sources said a spare part for the radars power supply system could only be supplied by BAE Systems, a British multinational defence, security and aerospace company based in London.
The TCAA was alerted about the radars defective power supply in 2010, but no action was taken.
BAE Systems controversially provided radar equipment to the Tanzanian government in 2000/01. The decision was strongly opposed by politician and ordinary Tanzanians
Despite the fact the nation only had a small collection of military aircraft, and although the World Bank and the IMF suggested a civilian radar system could be bought for $16 million, Tanzania proceeded to buy a $45 million radar system from BAE Systems.
Then minister for infrastructure Andrew change was forced to resign in 2008 over the controversy.December 2010, BAE was fined for making payments to a marketing adviser in Tanzania, who was involved in the deal. The company admitted it had failed to account for the $12.4 million payment it made to Shailesh Vithlani.
The radar equipment was funded through a loan that Barclays Bank provided to the Tanzanian government.
Habari kutoka gazeti la The Citizen
