I am planning a trip to South America. I would like to fly into Buenos Aires, spend a couple weeks there and then continue on, eventually departing from Chile.
Issue: the main radar for Buenos Aires was hit by lightening March 1st and has been inoperable since, relying on line-of-sight and position charts. I've searched google news and there's been a few instances of near collisions, and take-off margins are up to 10 mins (from the usual 2.)
Has anyone had any issues getting into or out of BA Airports (international or domestic) recently?
I'm considering just flying in and out of Chile and catching the bus to BA. I plan to spend my first two weeks in BA, so that's a hassle. But having to worry about flight collisions and overworked controllers is not safe, and exceptionally stressful (to say the least.)
Anyone have any ideas on this?
Has anyone traveled from Santiago, Chile to BA? Is there a train?
Thanks!
There is not a train. Buses take 20 hours and cost 50.00 US$. Americans have to pay US$100 when arriving by air in Santiago.
Jorge Daniel Barchi.
Buenos Aires.
Previous report on the radar crisis at Ezeiza International Airport:
* There are genuine Air Traffic Control problems which do not look to go away quickly. The ATC problems are complicated by substantial pressure to keep airlines flying despite serious radar problems, some admitted, some denied by the Air Regions Command, an air force subjunct which until the 15th of March ran all of Argentine aviation. On the 15th President Kirchner announced the creation of a new National Civil Aviation Authority but only actually appointed five members to a Transfer Execution Unit. Since the present controllers are largely military - and certainly most with radar qualification - any real agency changes are going to take a while, even after the two new to-be-leased and 15 to be purchased ATC radars get up and running. When weather gets bad, with shaky radar, pax would be far better off accepting delays, inevitable under the paper, pencil and stopwatch system that preceded radar, and still substitues for it quite safely when the electronic eye fails anywhere in the world, than demanding to be delivered instantly - into danger. Obviously, except for scheduled maintenance no ATC authority, civil, military or some combination thereof, can predict radar outages. Weather prediction is a little better, but not much. ATC delays are not basically inconveniences. They are often measures taken to save the lives of the very pax who complain loudly in airport lines and lounges.
Jorge Daniel Barchi.
Buenos Aires.
<blockquote>Quote
<hr>Trying to live a life of Epic Adventure, everyday<hr></blockquote>
Isn't this part of it?
So....I've read of some close calls and delays but has there been any accidents due to ATC and the radar situation? EsterosdelIbera?
I'm guessing that many passengers on many planes pass through EZE almost everyday.
Jonathan, your username is iracecars and your bio says you try to live life as an epic adventure everyday. Do you race cars? That's kinda dangerous isn't it? Perhaps you could consider a flight into EZE as another epic adventure.
Instead of flying into Chile, why not try Montivedo, Uruguay? It's much closer to BA than Chile is and regular ferries run between the two cities every day. Just a thought.
there is an unusual situation:it's very foggy last days. This caused the domestic airport remained closed, with a lot of trouble for passangers! imagine ill people, or imagine travellers going to change planes in some other airport...
there were violent scenes because some passengers got very angry and attacked some employees, but in this case the solution was not in airport authorities' hands.
I think today the airport is operating, it's cloudy but not so foggy as previous days.
on the news said that it was 25 years ago that a fog like this was seen.
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