Lightning and a thunderstorm sometime yesterday afternoon again caused runway lights at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Timehri to go out.
Up to press time last night technicians were still battling to solve the problem. All airport traffic was halted with at least one outgoing Liat flight, LI 1870 cancelled.
When contacted around 7:15 last evening Minister of Transport Robeson Benn said that a transformer was burnt and there were breaks in the cable which have affected the entire system.
A team of technicians was immediately called out to deal with the emergency and flight cancellations were expected. When contacted again around 9:30 pm the Minister related that technicians were still working on solving the problem and he confirmed that flights were cancelled. Efforts to contact Airport CEO Ramesh Ghir for a comment proved futile.
On July 22nd, runway lights and the Air Traffic Control Tower at the CJIA were down for a few hours after another lightning storm hit a transformer and the stand-by generator developed radiator problems.
And last Thursday, four incoming flights had to be cancelled after the runway lights went out again. When contacted then, Ghir told Stabroek News that the recent lightning strike of July 22 had affected many pieces of equipment, including transformers. He explained that it had also weakened the cables around the airport.
Ghir had said that although some amount of work had been done, the lighting system was still not up to 100 per cent, although it was good enough to enable an aircraft to land. Ghir also explained that a number of light arrestors (similar to surge protectors) had been damaged leaving the equipment exposed.
He also said that Airport management is to conduct a complete review of the lighting system before Carifesta gets underway. Further, he stated that the airport had also secured equipment which would be able to test the cables immediately if there was lightning so that they would be better able to identify the exact area which had become exposed to damage. In addition to this, portable runway lights were being secured as a matter of urgency, Ghir said, so there would always be a fall-back plan.
The power failure last month had resulted in an Airport shutdown that affected a number of airlines. Caribbean Airlines (CA) and Zoom flights were not able to land until the wee hours of the morning of the following day.
Some persons who came from Miami had to stay at the Piarco International Airport in Trinidad for hours and a Zoom airline flight coming from Toronto was forced to stop over in Trinidad and arrived after 2 am the following day.
As regards the lights failure last month, head of the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority Zulficar Mohammed had told Stabroek News that the affected GPL transformer powered both locations (Runway lights and the Air Traffic Control Tower). He had said that the incident occurred some time after 2 pm on the said day and the generator was immediately put into operation but then it too shut down after it developed radiator problems. Mohammed said this forced a decision to shut down the airport preventing a Sky Services aircraft from landing on time and affecting other scheduled flights.
The aircraft had eventually landed however. Mohammed had said the situation was rectified some time after 11 pm and the airport declared opened thereafter. He had also said that the generator was removed and arrangements were made to have it fixed; further stating that the generator is old and would be replaced within a couple of months. (Melissa Charles)
