NAIA not fully operational; pilots use vision to land

Operations at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, contrary to earlier reports, are not yet fully restored as the Very High Frequency Omni-Directional Radio Range (VOR) is still being reconfigured, an official of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines' Operations Center, who declined to be named said Sunday. Aviation authorities have replaced the faulty navigation equipment that stalled flights Saturday at the NAIA, but CAAP technicians are still “reconfiguring the device on site" and pilots are landing at the airport visually aided by the control tower, the CAAP official told GMANews.TV. Manila International Airport Authority general manager Melvin Matibag said technical staff are still matching the radio frequencies programmed into the device with that required by the airport in Manila because the NAIA and the Subic airports have different terrains. "It seems that that part [of the machine] is functioning well as a system. It works together with other parts. We're doing it slowly but surely. We cannot just put on the system without checking the other parts," Matibag said at a press briefing aired by radio dzBB. The VOR is a device that directs airplanes to the runway in poor visibility. The equipment, which NAIA officials got from the Subic International Airport, was installed at NAIA's Runway 06-24. At least 50 domestic and international flights were canceled on Saturday after NAIA’s VOR broke down. The incident caused three airlines to cancel some of their domestic and international flights scheduled for Saturday night. Some of the airliners scheduled to arrive Saturday were diverted to the Clark International Airport in Pampanga and the international airport in Cebu, according to the CAAP and the MIAA. At least 35 international and domestic flights landed as of 8:30 a.m. Sunday, the Manila International Airport Authority said in a faxed statement. A GMA Flash Report said pilots are landing manually, using their own eyes in clear weather. The television report said Cebu Pacific had resumed flights at the NAIA Terminal 3 while operations at the Terminal 2 were also restored. A report on dzBB radio said the NAIA had issued a Notice to Airmen advising pilots that the control tower at the airport would assist arriving aircraft. —VS, GMANews.TV