Cure for fog

Fog plan hits turbulence
ANDREW HEASLEY
June 5, 2010

MELBOURNE Airport is supposed to be ''fog-proof'' after a $17 million infrastructure upgrade but as this week's flight diversions showed, the planes and flight crew are not.

Not all of Australia's domestic aircraft fleet are equipped, or pilots trained, to make use of the airport's new low-visibility landing system.

On Thursday, fog caused havoc with airline schedules as several morning flights were unable to land at Melbourne and had to be diverted to Sydney or Adelaide.

Air Services Australia spokesman Matt Wardell said the system primarily benefited international arrivals, as modern long-haul planes had more sophisticated avionics in the cockpit and pilots were trained to use the Category 3 low-visibility Instrument Landing System (Cat-3).

''It's not practical or economical to mandate aircraft to be fitted with it because there are only a few airports Australia-wide that are affected by fog,'' Mr Wardell said.

Melbourne is the only Australian airport to have the system installed.

Mr Wardell said the system was used on Thursday for landings, allowing suitably equipped planes and trained crew to land safely while Melbourne was shrouded in fog.

All of Qantas's Airbuses and Boeing 747s, 767s and 737-800s are equipped with the ''Cat-3'' gear and its pilots trained in its use.

A spokesman said Qantas had 21 older 737s-400s and smaller aircraft flying domestically that were not equipped with Cat-3.

While Jetstar has the equipment on its Airbus fleet used here and abroad and its international pilots are trained in its use, its domestic-only pilots are not trained to use the system.

Tiger Airways and Virgin Blue's planes are not Cat-3 equipped, either, though Virgin is evaluating the technology for its next aircraft purchases.

The airlines said the reason the planes did not have the technology was that until two months ago no Australian airport had it either.

Despite downtown Melbourne looking grey all day yesterday from the ground up, airlines reported that flights were landing and leaving normally.