Airport runway lights down again

Far left, Commonwealth Ports Authority acting director Chris Tenorio conducts the press conference and meeting with the heads of airlines at the Francisco C. Ada/Saipan International Airport conference room yesterday. (Erwin Encinares)

A possible short circuit of unknown origin caused the fluctuation of the runway lights at the Francisco C. Palacios/Saipan International Airport beginning 6:19pm Wednesday night that resulted in the cancellation of one flight and the delay of several others, according to Commonwealth Ports Authority acting executive director Chris Tenorio.

In a media conference at 12pm at the CPA conference room, Tenorio said currently night landings on the lightless runway of the Saipan International Airport are the pilots’ full responsibility.

He also cleared that the airport would not be closed, despite the runway’s faulty lighting.

“Right now for night operations, it’s the pilot’s discretion. Just to make everything clear, the airport is not closed. We sent out a Notice to Airmen, so it is the pilot’s discretion now to land or not to land,” said Tenorio.

When asked whether CPA is concerned about the safety of the flights coming in without runway lights, Tenorio bluntly stated, “It’s up to the pilot’s discretion.”

When attendees of the press conference suggested that the airport operate only during the daytime, Tenorio was quick to dismiss the idea.

“That is up to the airlines to decide if they want to do day ops, but we’re not closing the airport, we are not going to say it’s only day ops. We’re still opening the airport. It’s up to the airlines to work out their schedule. We are not going to close the airport,” reiterated Tenorio.

Airline personnel who attended the media conference seemed frustrated by the nonchalance of Tenorio’s answers with one staff claiming that connecting flights were taking a big hit, and that the airlines are losing money because of the off and on lights at the Saipan airport.

Tenorio responded that the CPA is doing the best they can and that they are even willing to bring people from off-island to assist them, even if it meant that repairs would most likely be delayed.

“We are concerned about that [connecting flights], that’s why we are trying our very best. We are working with everybody, and in fact, if we need to bring in people from Guam to assist us, then we will do that right now,” said Tenorio.

Tenorio shared that the proper evaluation of the situation is now ongoing and assessments are being made.

“Our guys went out to try and do assessments on the lighting, which was very hard to do due to the weather, so with that, there were no flight cancellation, except for Cape Air, and also one airline came in on midnight, with the rest all delayed until the morning.”

Possibly short circuit to blame

Airport master electrician Steve Koch said the runway most probably lost its lighting due to a short circuit of unknown origin.

“There’s either got to be an open circuit, a short somewhere, and now we’re in the process of trying to track down which leg is causing the issue.”

Koch also said that this issue was different from the last situation. “The lighting issues we’ve had before is actually burnt wires. We’ve replaced those and they worked, and there’s probably another leg that hasn’t been checked or replaced yet,” said Koch.

Early yesterday morning Tenorio denied that flight disruptions were due to the faulty lighting of the runway. He initially claimed that they only experienced delayed flights.

CPA has already received verbal approval by the Federal Aviation Administration to work on the lighting of the runway.