—after runway lights go out
Four incoming flights had to be cancelled on Thursday evening after the runway lights went out again at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport forcing airport management to conduct a complete review of the lights system before the Carifesta season gets under way.

Late last month lightning and thunderstorms hit a transformer at a time when the stand-by generator had developed radiator problems, and this caused a total shut-down of the lights and the air traffic control tower closing the airport for several hours.

Contacted for comment yesterday, airport Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Ramesh Ghir told Stabroek News that the recent lightning strike had some effect on many pieces of equipment, including transformers. He explained that it had also weakened the cables around the airport.

He said the recent disruption had occurred on Thursday and although some amount of work had been done the lighting system was still not up to100 per cent, although it was good enough to enable an aircraft to land. Ghir also explained that a number of light arrestors (similar to surge protectors) had been damaged leaving the equipment exposed.

Asked about permanent long-term measures to prevent a recurrence, particularly in view of the increased traffic expected in another two weeks, Ghir told Stabroek News that a complete test and review of the system was being done and the systems should be adequate to withstand the increase in the number of flights.

Further he stated that the airport had also secured equipment which would be able to test the cables immediately if there was lightning so that they would be better able to identify the exact area which had become exposed to damage.

In addition to this, portable runway lights were being secured as a matter of urgency, Ghir said, so there would always be a fall-back plan.

He reported yesterday midday that though the system had not been completely rehabilitated, it was serviceable to the extent that planes could land. Engineers were working around the clock to complete the review and testing of the system, Ghir said.