Regional airline Liat has been explaining the real reason for its reluctance to fully embrace night landing at Dominica’s Melville Hall airport.
In a letter to Dominica News Online in response to recent comments from Tourism Mininster Ian Douglas on the matter, Liat’s Manager for Corporate Communications Desmond Brown said “all of Liat’s aircraft have night landing capability for Dominica and the majority of captains have been checked for night landing”.
The Liat spokesman also indicated that the navigation instrument system installed at Dominica is common throughout the airports in Liat’s network and that no additional training is required.
“The real issue is that Dominica has a tailwind limitation of 10 knots for night landings beyond which aircraft are not permitted to operate into that airport no matter its size or type,” Brown said in his letter to DNO.
He indicated that Liat had, after careful consideration by the Company’s Flight Operations Department, supported by a risk assessment, applied to the Eastern Caribbean Civil Aviation Authority for this limitation to be increased and was awaiting a formal response.
Tourism Minister Douglas at a news conference last Friday in seeking to explain the Liat night landing situation, said he couldn’t fully recall the reasons given by the airline, but seemed to remember officials suggesting that Liat has limited planes with night landing capability, and that some of its pilots have to undergo training to use some of the equipment involved.
The minister said at the time that while there were some Liat flights undertaking night landing, he would like to see the airline making much more use of that facility.
THE LIAT LETTER IS REPRODUCED HERE FOR THE BENEFIT OF DNO READERS:
28th February 2012
Dear Editor:
This letter is in reply to an article, dated February 24, 2012, appearing on Dominica News Online which contained inaccuracies.
In particular, I would like to address the portion of the article which stated that: “The tourism minister said LIAT has explained that it has limited planes with night landing capability, and that some of its pilots have to undergo training to use the navigational instruments involved.”
The following response is being made:
All of LIAT’s aircraft have night landing capability for Dominica and the majority of captains have been night checked into Dominica.
The navigation instrument system installed at Dominica is common throughout the airports in LIAT’s network therefore no training is required.
The real issue is that Dominica has a tailwind limitation of 10 knots for night landings beyond which aircraft are not permitted to operate into that airport no matter its size or type.
After careful consideration by the Company’s Flight Operations Department, supported by a Risk Assessment, LIAT has applied to the Eastern Caribbean Civil Aviation Authority (ECCAA) for this limitation to be increased.
The Company is awaiting a formal response from the ECCAA.
Yours sincerely,
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