SIBU, March 8: State-of-the-art navigation and landing aid systems are being added to Sibu Airport for safer aircraft landings especially for early morning flights and during low visibility.
In a statement today, Deputy Minister for Public Health, Housing and Local Government Sarawak Michael Tiang said these upgrades are being carried out due to several instances where aircraft took longer time to land due to bad weather.
The flights mostly affected are early morning flights due to thick clouds which cause poor visibility.
He said Sibu Airport is undergoing replacement of Doppler Very High Frequency Omni Directional Radio Range Beacon (DVOR)/ Distance Measuring Equipment (DME) and Instrument Landing System (ILS).
“I was informed that the new DVOR was completed in November 2022 and ILS is expected to be completed in June this year.
“These are navigational and landing aids 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 (of the day) to Sibu from Kuching,” he said.
The Pelawan assemblyman said he had on Tuesday (March 7) taken a 6.25am Kuching-Sibu flight to understand the situation better. With him was Sibu Municipal Council (SMC) chairman Clarence Ting
The plane had to turn back to Kuching because it could not land at Sibu Airport due to low visibility.
“The plane arrived at Sibu at around 7am and could not land due to thick cloud and thus affected visibility.
The captain then announced that they have to detour to Kuching and the plane landed at Kuching International Airport at 7.20am,” Tiang said, adding the plane finally took off again at 8.40am and landed safely at Sibu Airport at about 9.15am.
“Then, I also heard people asking why this happened so frequently at Sibu Airport. Even I myself who used to travel between Kuching and Sibu very often experienced it many times.
“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.
Tiang urged the public to be patient while the systems are fully installed. — DayakDaily
