Makeshift Towers for Aid Air

“Hurricane Katrina knocked out much of the avi­a­tion com­mu­ni­ca­tions infra­struc­ture along the Gulf Coast,” Federal Computer Week observes. But jury-​​rigged con­trol tow­ers and mobile satel­lite uplinks, installed by fed­eral work­ers, let thou­sands of relief planes land.

We have patched together the sys­tem with mobile com­mu­ni­ca­tions equip­ment, satellite-​​based equip­ment and power gen­er­a­tors, FAA spokesman Greg Martin said. Thats all you can do when you are look­ing at a region with no infra­struc­ture…“
Last week­end, Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport became one of the nations top five busiest air­ports, as employ­ees han­dled 3,300 flights per day — quadru­ple the nor­mal air traf­fic lev­els, accord­ing to FAA offi­cials.
The air­port is the main con­duit for relief and relo­ca­tion efforts. Because of the heav­ier traf­fic, the FAA brought in a portable air traf­fic con­trol tower to mag­nify the com­mu­ni­ca­tions capac­ity of the air­ports main tower. Twenty-​​four tech­ni­cal oper­a­tions spe­cial­ists and 18 air traf­fic con­trol spe­cial­ists work in the facil­ity.
In Mississippi, the Defense Department deployed a tem­po­rary tower at Stennis International Airport to assist emer­gency relief air­craft.
The mil­i­tary has also launched radar devices and radio com­mu­ni­ca­tions on air­craft to fill in con­nec­tiv­ity gaps.
Today, radar is slow­ing com­ing back online, say offi­cials from the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association.

September 7th, 2005 | 'Canes, Homeland Security | 1625 Comments »http://defensetech.org/2005/09/07/makeshift-towers-for-aid-air/Makeshift+Towers+for+Aid+Air2005-09-07+23%3A25%3A27noahmax You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.