MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina: quasi air collision because of lack of radar coverage

Two aircrafts almost crashed in mid air in the area of control of Buenos Aires main airport Ezeiza, claimed on Monday the Argentine commercial pilots association. The accident was avoided appealing to an alarm system directly operated from the aircrafts.

The claim comes at a particularly tense moment since the air traffic vigilance system in the Buenos Aires influence area is under extreme strain because the main radar was struck by lightning last March and still hasn't been entirely recovered. Furthermore a few hours before the almost accident Argentina's Ministry of Defence had officially announced that the overall situation was gradually normalizing, flying conditions in Argentina "were adequate" and there was "no risk of an imminent catastrophe". "The Air Traffic Comptrollers Association informed us that between 8 and 9 AM this morning a quasi collision of two aircrafts occurred, involving presumably a United Airlines unit and another from Andes", said Pablo Biro chairman of the Argentine commercial pilots association. According to Biro there was no accident because of the Traffic Collision Avoidance System, TCAS, installed in aircrafts and which orders approaching pilots to maneuver either changing altitude or direction and thus avoiding accidents. "It's the last resource since it indicates to pilots an evasive course of action", said Biro who revealed something very similar happened a few days ago in the north of Argentina. In this case the United Airlines aircraft was approaching Ezeiza and the Andes unit the domestic air terminal Aeroparque but at the same altitude. Apparently they closed in to four miles range before avoiding the collision course. Last week an international pilots association with 100.000 members warned pilots operating in Argentine airspace "should exercise extreme vigilance and awareness of the present situation in order to maintain safe operations". Earlier in the morning before news of the quasi accident became public Argentina's minister of Defence Nilsa Garré had announced that President Kirchner's administration was normalizing the situation with a battery of measures. These measures included spares for the damaged radar and a second one on loan from Spain. Garré insisted that the main radar in the Ezeiza influence area was operating with one of the two channels and the backup system "was working normally". "The imminent arrival of the primary radar on loan from Spain will enable us to duplicate current capacity and avoid any situation such as the lightning which left the radar out of service", announced Garré. The Minister of Defence argued that the situation cold be attributed to the "prolonged disinvestment and lack of investment in the sector, basically because of irrational Defence budget cuts from previous administrations". However she said travelers could look to drastic positive changes in the near future: "in the coming four years we will jump from five to 16 radars with a far larger air coverage, which also represents a significant budget effort". The Buenos Aires press later reported that among the passengers on board the United flight from Washington was Minister of Interior Anibal Fernandez.