DURANGO — The Durango-La Plata County Airport is getting an upgrade next year that will allow air controllers to guide planes to a landing instead of watching them drop off air-traffic-control radars as they approach the runway.
Durango doesn’t have a control tower, requiring Denver air-traffic controllers to monitor flights in and out of Durango.
When a plane descends below 11,000 feet, the planes fall off the radar.
Controllers must order planes to circle until the descending plane is safely off the runway.
According to the Durango Herald, some planes running short on fuel have to fly back to Denver because the Cortez and Farmington, N.M., airports don’t have enough workers to handle the planes.
The new equipment will have beacons that send precise data about each plane to the Denver tower.
Other airports affected by the problem include Yampa Valley-Hayden, Craig-Moffat, Steamboat Springs and Garfield County Regional.
Other Western Slope airports that will use the same system are Gunnison-Crested Butte, Montrose and Telluride.
More than five years ago, the state approved $20 million to install the ground beacons at airports across southern Colorado, including Durango’s.
Durango aviation director Ron Dent said foggy, hazy or snowy weather causes backups that limit landings at Durango to as few as three per hour, compared with an estimated 14 per hour with the new equipment.
The equipment that the Durango airport currently relies on includes a glide slope antenna, which emits a signal to incoming pilots who can’t see through the fog or snow, another device that tells pilots how far away they are from that point on the runway and a pathway of lights leading to the runway.
Controllers sent data
The Federal Aviation Administration says Colorado’s rugged terrain makes it almost impossible for air-traffic controllers to maintain radar surveillance of aircraft in certain areas.
The new equipment is called a multilateration system. Beacons send precise directional data about each plane to air-traffic controllers.
