Jorge Chavez | No runway, control tower or energy: events six months after the opening of the new airport reveal what short-circuited | blackout | flights | delays | cancellations | lime

The President of the Republic, Dina Boluarte, and the former Minister of Transport, Paola Lazarte, have inaugurated a new control tower and a second runway in April 2023, and it is believed that the solution to the electricity problem, which will apparently affect only the oldest runway, will be quick: to exploit that infrastructure, which has accumulated more dust than it is used. However, more than a year has passed since the State “inaugurated” the said runway, and the same authorities They confirmed that the system was no longer functional.

In fact, his own Ministry of Transport (MTC) The report said that only at 1:55 a.m. on Monday, about eight hours after the incident, “All airlines have been notified of the authorization to operate the second runway“. In other words, The runway is not immediately available. “If the second runway is operational, this problem will not be as serious because runway one will be out of service and the second runway will receive attention. LAP is responsible for this”, these are the words of Minister Raúl Pérez-Reyes.

Like a beacon without light

The reasons why the new tower and second runway were not generally used are not well known, and in fact this was the cause of long-standing difficulties between Córpac SA and the company. Lima Airport Partners (LAP). The first is responsible for air operations, while the concessionaire is responsible for managing the airport. It is worth noting that LAP is also responsible for the renovation and expansion plan of AIJCH, which is theoretically scheduled to be opened in December next year. In this project, The concessionaire built a new runway and a new control tower.

Yet, despite the pomp and circumstance of a political inauguration, after the cameras and officials left the Tower of London following the premiere, one key observation jumped out that has actually been causing alarm for months: The glass used in the towers creates a double or triple object that is displayed at night. Although LAP has obtained Public Transport Infrastructure Investment Supervisory Agency (Ositrán) For these window installations, International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) – the world’s highest entity – noted the risks this represents for the security of airport activities.

You found out

In communication tradingRocío Espinoza, LAP’s general manager of communications, said the type of glass installed was already used in other airports internationally and explained that Córpac refused to operate it despite the documented problems.It’s an excuse.”. “It is one thing that there is an optical effect, but the air navigation system has the technology (air surveillance, which is handled by Córpac). The problem is that there is no system either.“,disclose.

To elaborate, the aerial surveillance systems are not installed in the control tower. They are located in the control center near Jorge Chavez, where operators monitor all commercial ships crossing the Peruvian sky. Visual monitoring is carried out in the control tower.

Still, Espinosa stressed that Copac’s “excuse” was only because of the visualization problem with the landing plane, not the takeoff plane.The second runway can be used for take-off flights”, questioned the LAP spokesman. Likewise, he added that the Lima Airport Partners – following the ICAO ruling, as described below – They are already in the final stages of implementing the new glass. “We have received good reviews from our regulator, Ositrán“, hold it.

on the other hand, Unified Union of Peruvian Air Traffic Controllers (Sucta) Social media reported that “The new control tower (…) is not yet fully operational and has defects that are known to the public” Similarly, the president of Córpac, Luis Barrios, revealed before the Congress of the Republic that the airline operator “They practice during the day (in the new control tower), but never at night.”.

What the report reveals

The new control tower has twenty-four windows around its dome. In July 2023, ICAO determined in its final technical report that the glasses display “virtual images” and “Obvious but not real”, This is done throughout the day, but is more focused at night. Documents you accessed tradingrevealing that these reflections take on different positions depending on the movement of the ship, even when they are over land.”Observations showed that depending on the intensity of illumination from the aircraft’s headlights, the virtual phenomenon intensified and repeated itself in the third image, even when viewed through binoculars at a close distance of five miles.”, ICAO details.

As mentioned above, LAP spokesperson Rocío Espinosa explained that this was a problem only during landing operations, but it did not affect the aircraft’s takeoff. However, the organization’s opinion is different. “A perfectly visualized observation detail is the virtual images of vehicles moving or stopped at different places in the airport.”, it reads. Recalling the fatal accident in November 2022, when an aviation fire truck collided with an aircraft accelerating at full speed, it is enough to understand that the inability to have accurate knowledge of the movements of all units on the ground during an operation, no matter what it is, is a serious risk.

“From an optical point of view, beacon glass does not have the best characteristics for use in control towers and constitutes a hazard (in the context of operational safety management) that must be addressed and its risks properly assessed. The characteristics of the defects do not allow us to consider optical solutions to neutralize or attenuate the observed defects to negligible levels.”, the ICAO report concludes.

Power Issues

trading The report reviewed an internal Córpac SA document sent to the agency’s aviation technical management department in November 2023 that warned of a worrying “Current status of the electrical system of the Jorge Chavez International Airport expansion project, consisting of the different buildings 1210, 1240, 1261, 1262 and the West Control Tower, installed by the concessionaire Lima Airport PartnersThe document reveals nine incidents in which Córpac detected faults or problems in the power system.

These possibilities announceGenerator set is too large“, this”Lack of automation in air conditioning equipment due to power outages, replacement and transfer of power that cannot be restored“Included”Lack of electrical redundancy for lift trucks and uninterruptible systems for these equipment (elevators and lift trucks) and avoidance of power outages to reduce the entrapment of personnel in the West Control Tower (…)“. It is understood that there have been cases where operators have been detained due to power problems before.

“Design decisions affecting integrity and reliability are related to the availability of electrical equipment, requiring high reliability of the primary power source and rapid, automatic transfer to the secondary power source; therefore, the power sources should be analyzed based on the availability, capacity, reliability, and practicality of the proposed installation, with at least 02 independent power sources implemented based on the lowest probability of simultaneous failure of two power sources.”, which resolved the document.

Copac, again…

This is not the first time that Córpac has been caught in the eye of a storm due to a system failure, affecting air operations and increasing the risk for hundreds of passengers flying through Peruvian airspace, as confirmed by this newspaper in a series of reports on air surveillance systems.

he First broadcast report The lack of warranty on aerial surveillance equipment was revealed. This is a whole system of radars and equipment that allows operators to see the movement of every commercial aircraft in the skies across the country through screens in the control center. The entire ecosystem is called Aircon 2100 and was installed by a well-known Spanish company.

Although Regulatory Aviation Authority of Peru (RAP) It was determined that there was no industry in this sector in Peru, and therefore Córpac had to obtain operational guarantees from the system supplier, which has been inactive since November 2020. The entity confirmed this to El Comercio.

These publications documented the reasons for this: repeated system failures, some of which were caused by allegedly trained Córpac personnel. Exposed One of the surveillance systems, called ADS-B, which is necessary to serve as a “Plan B” in case the radar system crashes, was not working. In fact, during its use, worrying failures were recorded: they displayed wrong information about the position of aircraft.