PORT ANGELES — A bit of fog is not always enough to ground aircraft, but this week it has resulted in the cancellation of 15 Kenmore Air flights at William R. Fairchild International Airport because of the temporary absence of an instrument landing system.
The landing system, which guides aircraft to the runway, has been out of commission since June 21 while the Federal Aviation Administration upgrades its antennae and other equipment, said Port of Port Angeles Aviation Director Jeff Robb.
The work will be complete Tuesday or Wednesday, he said.
Craig O’Neill, Kenmore Air marketing director, said the company would have been able to make those canceled flights as long as it could have used the landing system.
A layer of fog during each of those mornings made it unsafe to land without one.
The fog resulted in cancellations of departures as well as arrivals, because the aircraft must be able to land safely at the airport if it needs to return mid-flight, O’Neill said.
“It’s bad news,” he said.
“We’ve done a lot of refunding over the last few days.”
O’Neill said he couldn’t estimate how much the cancellations have cost the company.
Jeff Well, owner of Rite Bros. Aviation, said the absence of the landing system has resulted in the cancellation of one chartered flight for his company.
O’Neill said the aircraft can use a global position system to locate the runway during poor weather, but there still has to be a certain level of visibility.
He said a GPS approach requires a 1,000-foot ceiling with 3 miles of visibility on the ground.
Using the instrument landing system requires a minimal ceiling of 200 feet with a mile of visibility on the ground.
Robb said the upgrade to the landing system is an FAA project, so he couldn’t say Wednesday evening how much it costs.
He said the project was initially scheduled for September, but the port got it moved to early summer when there is less of a chance of poor weather, such as fog.
“It was probably the best window that we wouldn’t have poor weather conditions,” Robb said.
“Of course, this morning we were weathered in.”
The landing system, he said, is at least 20 years old.
Robb said the landing system was in compliance with FAA regulations.
“The system worked OK before; they just couldn’t get parts for it,” he said.
“They were scavenging parts from all around the nation to keep the system going.”
He said the FAA didn’t want to risk a catastrophic failure because of lack of parts. New parts will be more readily available with the upgrades.
The upgrades also provide for a more stable frequency, Robb said.
Robb added, “There’s no perfect time” to do this work.
“But it had to be replaced.”
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
