(BBC) Five flights between Sao Paulo and the US were turned back after a radar in north Brazil shut down for two hours. The problem occurred just one day after Brazil's president said air safety in the country met international norms. The radar, at Manaus in Amazon state, covers a major point of entry into the country, including many routes between Brazil, the US and Central America. Meanwhile, the flight recorder from the Tam Airlines plane that crashed in Sao Paulo on 17 July has been recovered. Brazilian officials said they had located the real flight recorder after first mistakenly sending a piece of the plane's fuselage to the US for analysis.
bubbak
1
klaush
Those pilots just don't have the training... European airlines flying over equatorial africa are used to flying with non-existant air traffic control... they follow some ancient protocols of connecting all planes within 1000km radius in a radio chain and making repeated voice broadcasts of their positions :-)
2
klaush
The sad thing is that the pilots probably knew that one thrust reverser of the TAM plane was in bad repair, but management still forced them to fly.
3
anonymous
I read the original article, in full. It goes on to say were it not for the tragedy in SP nobody would have noticed a 4 hour down time on the Manaus radar.`Inclined to agree ascomplex kit like ATC radar are not immune to mechanical or electrical failure. It's also worth noting that the majority of the earth's surface is not under radar coverage, including big chunks of airspace used by commercial passenger jets. Especially true in SE Asia and IIRC even a goodly portion of North America.
4
bubbak
Yesterday, pilots for TAM and Gol announced that they would no longer land at Congonhas when it rains. TAM canceled 80 flights into Congonhas and diverted another 20 to Gaurulhos (the international airport for Sao Paulo). Flights were late nationwide (Fortaleza was #1, with 80-% of its flights late). Brazilian media use the term chaos. I doubt that the confusion and delays, dating back several months, is due just to a lack of training on the pilots´parts, but I none of us are air traffic control experts. The air traffic workers in Brazil, who are under military control, have been the loudest critics, fearing they are being blamed for the Gol crash last year.
5
klaush
I did nit mean to say that the Brazilian pilots had not training... my comment in #1 was referring to the flights coming from US who turned back when they had no radar support. This can be handled if they know proper voice communication methods.
6
bubbak
I believe the pilots are likely instructed to delay take-off or turn around (or divert; at least one flight landed in Manaus) if radar coverage is disrupted in an area where it is critical (in some places it may be much less important), especially if it is not a matter of coverage suddenly cutting out while they are in relatively close to their starting destination or someplace they can land safely. Voice communications were an issue when the Gol plane collided with the Legacy jet last year (the poor English of some of the air traffic controllers). I would prefer the pilot of a plane I am in to err on the side of caution. I will be flying Manaus-Miami on TAM in a couple of months. If I don´t survive, I´ll let you know (the TT From-The-Beyond branch).
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