Like every year, flight operations are being hampered at the Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka due to heavy fog, resulting in schedule disruptions and passenger harassment.
In such a state, the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) has taken the initiative to improve the Instrument Landing System (ILS) at the airport.
Once this is improved, planes will be able to land in low visibility. At most times, pilots use their plain visions to land aircrafts but to ensure proper landing in low visibility, the ISL is used.
The ISL currently being used at the Shahjalal International Airport belongs to category-1 but if there is a power outage, this takes 8 seconds to start and therefore, cannot be relied upon.
However, no such fears exist for category-2 ISL. During winter, flights often have to be suspended in the domestic and international routes due to low visibility between November and February.
Flight disruptions also happen in heavy rain.
Chairman of CAAB, Air Vice Marshal Md Mofidur Rahman said: “Work to upgrade ILS is going on and the lighting system will also be improved; currently, planes cannot land with visibility lower than 500 metres but once category-2 ILS is installed, planes will be able to land with less than 500 metres of visibility.”