Air flights bring people and much change to the island of Cyprus
Turkish flight veers off course
over presidential palace in South Cyprus
A commercial flight of Turkish low-cost airline Pegasus veered off course on Tuesday and flew over the [Greek Cypriot] presidential palace due to a fault in the VOR air traffic control system at Ercan airport in the north [TRNC], along with bad weather, the [GC] Republic’s civil aviation department (DCA) said yesterday.
The Boeing 737-800 was spotted flying at low altitude over the palace, at around noon on Tuesday. The plane set a course over Aglantzia [Aglandjia] and Agios Dometios [Metehan] and eventually landed at Ercan.
The [GC] presidential palace is in a no-flight-zone, something which the pilot of the Turkish aircraft ignored. Ignoring flight regulations set by [Greek] Cyprus authorities was no surprise as Turkey doesn’t recognise the [Greek Cypriot] Republic and [for South Cyprus] Ercan is not a recognised point of entry to the country.
“The pilot probably got scared of the bad weather and veered towards Nicosia a little more than usual. This is expected since their VOR system went down.”
On October 1, Ercan disabled the airport’s VHF Omni Directional Radio Range (VOR) navigational system, a ground short-range radio that enables aircraft to determine their position and stay on course by receiving radio signals.
The temporary suspension of the system meant that pilots have had to fly by sight when taking off and landing resulting in aircraft flying off their usual course, a DCA official told the Cyprus Mail on October 12.
The VOR was supposed to be operational by early November.
“Pilots employ visual flight. When taking off from Ercan they have to pass over the Pentadaktylos [Besparmak] mountains and without a ground navigational system they tend to veer a little to the left so they can gain more altitude when they approach the mountain. That’s why some people reported seeing more planes,” said the official.
Airplanes flying to the north [TRNC] do not submit their flight plan to Eurocontrol, the organisation based in Brussels that coordinates air traffic control for all of Europe, but submit it directly to Ercan.
Air traffic at Ercan comes exclusively from Turkey. DCA recorded 170 take offs and landings at the airport from January to May this year.
Source: Constantinos Psillides for Cyprus Mail
