Days after installing a back-up portable runway lights system, the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) was yesterday forced to delay some outgoing and incoming flights after sparking on some electrical wires caused disruptions to the radio frequency system.
Up to press time last night personnel from the Guyana Power and Light were trying to rectify the problem while the airport switched to its generator for power.
According to reports some power lines around the airport touched each other and distorted the radio traffic signals in the Air Traffic Control Tower. This situation developed sometime around 3 yesterday afternoon, this newspaper was reliably informed, and caused some delay in flights.
Last evening this newspaper confirmed this with a managerial official at the airport who noted that everything was back to normal on GPL power. When that official spoke with Stabroek News, the GPL team was still at work.
However the official said the aerodrome was open to flights and those delayed flights would have been accommodated last night.
Liat and Meta flights were said to be affected.
Contacted for comment last evening Transport Minister Robeson Benn told Stabroek News that the problem was a temporary one related to GPL power supply. At 7:30 last night, the minister reported that the matter was cleared up and the airport was expecting a Meta flight at 7:45, Liat at 8:30 and two Caribbean Airlines flights at 10:45 and 1 am respectively.
