The head of Colombia’s aircraft controller union said Tuesday that “constant communication faults” at Bogotá’s El Dorado airport puts the lives of passengers and crew at risk.
“The civil aviation must have a plan of replenishment, two systems, in which one system starts operating when the other falls. These systems are not working and we the controllers who are dependent on these systems… well we cannot do anything,” said union representative Carlos Arturo Bermudez to radio station Caracol.
The union representative further stated that airplanes often were left drifting due to the lack of control on the ground: “The controller should be able to avoid a tragedy, but without the equipment this is very difficult.”
He also noted that the gravest incident to date occurred last week when the radar screens were left “completely blank” for one hour.
