SIBU: Sibu Airport is taking steps to upgrade its landing and navigational aid systems to ensure safe landing of aircraft especially during poor visibility.
Deputy Minister for Public Health, Housing, and Local Government Michael Tiang said the airport is undertaking a replacement project for Doppler Very High-Frequency Omni Directional Radio Range Beacon (DVOR)/ Distance Measuring Equipment (DME) and Instrument Landing System (ILS).
He was informed that the new DVOR was completed in November 2022 and ILS is expected to be completed in 2023.
“These are navigational aid and landing aid to guide the aircraft to land. I was made to understand that the problem of landing due to low visibility is quite frequent for the first flight to Sibu from Kuching.
“Some people even commented that Sibu has an outdated landing aid system and navigation system. So I tried to find out more and decided to ask the control tower at Sibu Airport,” he said in a statement Wednesday (March 8).
Tiang said he wanted to find out after experiencing it on Tuesday morning when the plane had to return to Kuching because it could not land at Sibu airport due to poor visibility.
“I took the first flight to Sibu at 6.25am with the chairman of Sibu Municipal Council (SMC) Clarence Ting and the plane took off on time and the plane arrived in Sibu at around 7 am.
However, the Pelawan assemblyman said the plane could not land due to thick clouds, which affected visibility.
Hence, the captain announced that they have to fly back to Kuching and the plane landed at Kuching International Airport at 7.20 am.
“None of us was allowed to disembark, all of us stayed in the plane while waiting for the time to fly back to Sibu.
“While waiting, some students were saying that this situation happened quite frequently during the first flight to Sibu,” he said.
He said the plane finally took off at 8.40 am and landed safely at about 9.15 am.
“Then, I also heard people asking why this happened so frequently at Sibu Airport. Even I who used to travel to Kuching and Sibu very often experienced it.
“In fact, last month, there was one time, we could not land due to low visibility and the plane was circling up there for a long time before we could finally land safely,” he said.
Thus, he wanted to understand whether it is true that the navigation system and landing aid system were out of date or not functioning well.
He has since learnt that the Ministry of Transport had approved the two new systems; DVOR and ILS to be installed at Sibu Airport.
“The new DVOR was already installed in November last year and for the new ILS, it will be completed in June. The old system had already been uninstalled to give way to the new system (ILS) to be installed,” he said.
He said that once completed, Sibu airport will be one of the airports in Sarawak to have state-of-the-art navigation and landing aid systems.
“In other words, during early morning flights and if there is a very thick cloud and causes low visibility when the plane reaches 400 feet, these two new systems will guide the plane to identify the runway and enable it to land safely,” he said.
He said this is good news for the people of Sibu as he understands that many have experienced inconveniences due to delays and bad weather.
Thus, he urged everyone to be patient for the time being until the systems are installed.
