GCAA to liaise with NCA to check Controller-Pilot Communication leaks

The Ghana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) on Thursday said it would liaise with the National Communication Authority (NCA) to check and find a solution to the phenomenon where Controller-Pilot Communications were received by some Radio and Television sets.

“Our radios and sound are regularly checked but that notwithstanding, we will liaise with NCA and undertake further checks to find the bottom line solution,” it said.

In a statement released in Accra and copied to the Ghana News Agency, the GCAA said its attention had been drawn to various media reports on communication between pilots and its control tower, explaining that incidents where Controller-Pilot Communication was received by some radio, television and mobile phones and FM radios happened frequently when people used receiving sets in the immediate vicinity of the transmitting station.

However, it stated that the “Freak reception is unusual and intermittent in nature and does not have any safety implication as far as the communication between Air Traffic Controllers and Pilots is concerned”.

“We wish to state for the records that GCAA has upgraded all Pilot Control Tower Communications as well as other Air Navigational Systems to international standards by procuring various aviation navigation aids to ensure frequency stability as well as to conform to internationally agreed standards and recommended practices.”

These interventions, which had ensured that Ghana was regarded as having one of the safest air spaces, included the acquisition of a state-of-the-art, Doppler Very High Frequency Omni-Range (DVOR) and Distance Measuring Equipment (DME) costing over one million dollars which was launched in December, 2011, as well as the recently installed Automatic Dependence Surveillance-Contract (ADSC)/Controller Pilot Data Link Communications (CPDLC) to allow Air Traffic Controllers and pilots to communicate via a data link system.

The system had been fully implemented and proved invaluable for visualising and communicating with various airlines in the Oceanic regions of the Accra Flight Information Region (FIR), said the statement.

Other equipment which had been installed were a state-of-the-art Air Traffic Control Voice Communication System which provides a comprehensive set of functions and systems necessary for professional Air Traffic Control communications, with the capacity to accommodate 36 Air Traffic Control User Positions, to improve communication and safety in the FIR. The GCAA had also assisted the Ghana Meteorological Agency to acquire new Automatic Weather Observation Systems and an Automatic Terminal Information System which provides real time weather conditions to the pilots.

The statement revealed that the Authority was in the process of procuring a state-of-the-art Aeronautical Message Handling System (AMHS) for the dissemination of aeronautical data to the aviation community worldwide.

“Air travel is one of the safest means of transportation and the aviation industry contributes a great deal towards the growth of our economy and provision of employment, and while we appreciate the efforts of the media in bringing out aviation issues for the benefit of the general public, we would be grateful if these facts are also publicised to ensure that confidence in the aviation industry is not eroded,” it stated.**