Maravi

Blackout paralyses Kenneth Kaunda airport operations

Blackout paralyses Kenneth Kaunda airport operations
By Gift Chanda, Chiwoyu Sinyangwe and Kabanda Chulu
Thu 04 Oct. 2012, 12:30 CAT

THE Kenneth Kaunda International Airport was on Tuesday evening plunged into darkness disrupting normal operations which saw luggage being loaded manually and passengers being checked physically.

National Airports Corporations Limited (NACL) managing director Robinson Misitala, who confirmed the incident yesterday, said the blackout was a result of a trip on the entire electricity supply system at the airport.

The blackout, which is believed to have started at around 17:00 hours, paralysed operations at the country's main airport and posed a security and accident risk as passengers passed through arrival terminals without having their passports stamped while incoming aeroplanes landed on a dark runaway.

International flights - Emirates and KLM - had their aircrafts leaving and entering Zambia without their luggage being electronically scanned.
Emirates passengers had to undergo physical searches and immigration procedures were done in dim light.

"When we alighted, we found a major power blackout and it is shocking that all passengers passed through arrival terminals freely thus posing a security risk and also an accident could have happened because planes landed in the dark," said Memory Niel, one of the passengers.

"They should have appointed smarter people to handle this crisis," said another passenger who did not want to be identified.

A KLM flight from Amsterdam which arrived at KKIA at 21:50 only finished off-loading after 23:45, a move which disrupted its return flight to the Netherlands.

The KLM flight, which carried 168 passengers, had to offload in batches of 30 while luggage was sorted out on the airport runway, similar to a bus emptying at a local bus station.

Airport staff who worked in poorly lit terminal building from a domestic generator set also complained about the poor logistical arrangements by NACL.
"Welcome to Zambia, the home of load shedding," said one Zambian as she welcomed her visitors from Europe.

The power blackout however was caused by a fault in the section that is entirely NAC's responsibility and not Zesco.

Misitala explained that the blackout was a result of a trip on the entire electricity supply system at the airport.

"The standby generator was immediately activated but unfortunately power in the concourse was not restored because the medium voltage panel had broken down due to overload thus paralysing the check-in system which had to be done manually, said Misitala.

"Engineers from both Zesco and National Airports Corporation Limited (NACL) tried frantically to repair the damaged panel but to no avail forcing the engineers to improvise supply to the concourse for lighting and to do a bypass as a second option."

He said power supply, however, to other facilities such as the control block, runway, taxiways and navigation aids was constant during this period through the standby generator.

"Investigations to establish the cause of the trip have been instituted and the Corporation has already made arrangements to replace the damaged components," he added.

And Zesco managing director Cyprian Chitundu said the corporation went to NACL's aid to offset the blackout.

"We think people at national airport were doing some maintenance and one of their switches had a fault and they couldn't switch back the power supply for part of the terminal building so the managing director called me and asked for our assistance and we supplied the cables by simply bypassing the switch which is on their side because they are responsible for that part and we made possible supply to the terminal building," Chitundu said in an interview yesterday.

"It took a bit of some time because we had to come back into town to get the cables, but we were at their service and that is what we are suppose to be doing anyway."

Chitundu said going further, Zesco proposed that it has a meeting with NACL so that they could see how efficient and reliable power could be supplied to the terminal building so that they don't have a similar problem in future.

Labels: AIRPORTS

posted by MrK @ 3:25 PM