After the chaos caused at the Jorge Chávez airport in Lima, due to a failure in the runway lights, which has forced national and international flights to be diverted to Trujillo and Pisco, questions and doubts arise on social networks about a second built runway and a new control tower which is usually activated only during emergencies.
However, the infrastructure could not handle the magnitude of the current situation, despite its availability in cases like these. Well, according to journalist Paolo Benza, who has been following the issue since February of this year, this has serious usability problems due to a design flaw.
This, despite the fact that the infrastructure was inaugurated with high expectations by President Dina Boluarte in April 2023, in the midst of the emergency caused by Cyclone Yaku.
Following the details provided by Benza, a report commissioned from the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) revealed that the insulated glasses with “double glazing” in the tower generate a “virtual image” of the aircraft, doubling the vision of the planes that They approach the runway.
According to ICAO, this detail represents a “DANGER” considerable for the night operations of the new control tower built by Lima Airport Partners (LAP), the airport operator, under the supervision of the Supervisory Body for Investment in Public Use Transportation Infrastructure (Ositran). However, said regulatory body did not make any comments on the associated risks to the duplication of aircraft.
Within the framework of these revelations, the new control tower and the second runway of the Jorge Chávez International Airport, although they were officially inaugurated more than a year ago, They are not yet 100% operational..
On November 8 of last year, during a testing phase called ‘white run’, there was a power outage in the new tower. A person who was there mentioned that, without power, it was not possible to leave the structure. Two days later, the cut was repeated, indicating persistent problems.
In this regard, Lima Airport Partners (LAP) reported that the cause of the failure was a temperature sensor on the main transformer and assured that these incidents were isolated. However, this sensor was changed the following month, raising questions about the reliability of the infrastructure.
Since then, the Peruvian Airports and Commercial Aviation Corporation (Corpac) has chosen not to use the new tower, claiming that there is no backup system in case of new power outages.
In parallel, it is known that two airline unions, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and the Association of International Air Transport Companies (AETAI), have expressed in a letter to the Ministry of Transport and Communications (MTC) that the controllers airlines had not received adequate training to operate with this new infrastructure.
In the midst of the chaos that arose, the president of Corpac, Jose Luis Barrioshas confirmed that “the operations team is looking at ways to open the second runway, to be able to receive larger tonnage aircraft.”
This action would be carried out in half an hour, as confirmed by Barrios. Meanwhile, aircraft are entering other landing strips in Trujillo and Pisco.
“We have tried to take the safety of the passengers and the flights first. “That is the most important thing for us, that is why quick actions are being taken and the problem resolved as soon as possible.”
