San José Airport Shut
Down For Three Hours Due
To Weather Station
Malfunction
For almost four hours
Sunday morning, the Juan
Santamaría (San José)
international airport
was shut down, no
flights coming or out,
from 10:00am to about
1:00pm, as 18
international flights
were put on hold as
airport personnel looked
to solve the problem.
Some incoming flights
were diverted to the
Daniel Oduber, in
Liberia, while others
were held at their
destination until the
clear signal was given.
Outgoing flights waited
on the tarmac or at the
gate.
The closure of the
airport as due to a
malfunction in the AOWS
meteorological weather
station that provides
accurate and up-to-date
weather information to
aircraft.
The failure of the
weather station shortly
after 9:00am meant that
the control tower could
not provide information
like wind speed and
direction, barometric
pressure and
temperature, to the
aircraft and under
international rules, the
airport cannot operate.
At 11:30 five TACA
aircraft sat on the
tarmac waiting for
clearance, the rest were
kept at the gate and the
arrival and departure
monitors read "retraso
indefinito".
It wasn't until 1:00pm
that the planes were
allowed to take off and
the inbound were given
clearance to start their
approach.
Only Copa Airlines was
forced cancelled two
flights, according to
Fernando Lara, a
spokesperson for the
airport manager, Alterra.
Flights from Continental
and American Airlines
were sent to Liberia,
where they were asked to
wait before making their
way to San José.
According to Werner
Stolz, of the Instituto
Meteorológico Nacional (IMN)
- national weather
service - an external
frequency interfered
with the AWOS station
signal, which is located
on the west side of the
landing strip.
Although the system is
new, it was installed
last November, it did
record a similar
malfunction during the
testing of the system,
though it was fixed
immediately and airport
operations were not
affected, according to
Stolz.
The task now is to
investigate the exact
cause of the
malfunction, testing for
the interference and the
possible relocation of
the station antenna. |
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