MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Radars and X ray equipment for Punta Arenas airport

Punta Arenas airport is introducing two new radars and state of the art X ray equipment to check cargo and luggage, announced this week the head of Chile's most extreme south international air terminal Hector Jara Fernández.

The two radars, primary and secondary will replace the current outdated equipment which has 27 uninterrupted years of service.

The primary radar has an 80 nautical miles radius, double channel including a weather six levels channel plus a monitoring and control system. The secondary radar is similar to those already working in Santiago and Puerto Montt airports but can also operate on Mode S, a system extremely common in United States and Europe indicated the Chilean official.

The X ray equipment and warehouse where it will operate demanded an investment of over 100.000 US dollars.

"We're coordinating with air carriers the random check of luggage, which normally is dispatched at the counter, so it won't mean additional delays for passengers", said Jara Fernandez.

Currently in Punta Arenas airport hand luggage is thoroughly checked by special trained staff before passengers board the aircraft. Luggage is usually dispatched unchecked.

"The new equipment has a special software to help detect drugs, explosives and precious metals. The purpose is to detect with sufficient margin any element that could interfere with the security of the aircraft", pointed out Punta Arenas airport chief.

"We're not after drugs; that responsibility belongs to another department" he added.

Finally Jara Fernandez pointed out that the number of passengers travelling through Punta Arenas air terminal in 2005 reached 400.000, which represents a 50.000 increase.

"This is closely linked to the growing Antarctic tourism", he explained.