LAHORE: Two flights were diverted to other airports of the country because of thick fog in Lahore on Wednesday.

Foreign airlines flights from Qatar and Sharjah were diverted to Karachi and Islamabad, respectively, as their pilots could not land the aircraft because of poor visibility.

The modern system which has been installed after over five months work at Lahore airport is said to enable flights landing in even 50 metres visibility. However, the flights diversion proved it otherwise.

The Civil Aviation Authority said the new system was fully functional and operational.

“During the early hours of fog in Lahore on Wednesday many flights landed safely. The CAT-III(B) is an advanced and state of the art instrument landing system.”

Trained pilot and an upgraded aircraft with CAT-III(B) ILS system can enable a plane land in the minimum visibility up to 50 meters. “The CAA had informed the airlines in July last to upgrade their aircraft and train their pilots to make them commensurate with the CAT-III(B) system for landing at Lahore in foggy weather,” CAA spokesman Pervez George said.

ILS CAT-III is a ground-based instrument approach system which provides precision guidance to an aircraft for safe landing during Instrument Meteorological Conditions (IMC) such as low ceiling or reduced visibility due to fog, smog, rain and other meteorological phenomenon.

Earlier, landing at the Lahore airport was not possible below 350 meters visibility. The work on the project was started in June last and it cost $25 million.

Published in Dawn, December 3rd, 2015