In these daysías uno de los principales temas que se hablan en redes sociales es el viento en el Quito airport – Tababela, but ¿thaté tan peligroso es el aeropuerto en estos meses o resto del añO?
*Este post fue revisado por personal aéreo de Ecuador antes de su publicación.
It is already known in Quito, either in the new airport or in the old Mariscal Sucre, that the summer winds become extremely strong between June and until mid-September, what is known as the summer season or dry season in the Ecuadorian highlands.
These strong winds are normal in these months, y para quienes viven en Quito o visitan las ciudad en esta época no es sorpresa ese viento frío y fuerte que lo caracteriza.
Of course, in the úlast toños se podría decir que el clima se ha vuelto más variable, sea por lo que muchos conocen como cambio climático o por situaciones normales de la naturaleza.
Now, en el tema aeronáutico que es lo que nos interesa, you have to be direct and decir que sí, Quito Airport suffers from these winds (which is no surprise to anyone), pero agravados por la orografía en la que este se asienta desde hace ya 5 años.
Independent of the old or new airport, el fenómeno viento, afecta o habría afectado de igual manera a ambos, pero la diferencia está en la situación geográfica donde fue construido el actual Mariscal Sucre.
En estas líneas no hablaremos si fue el mejor lugar para hacerlo, si existieron otras opciones o si se debió mantener el viejo aeropuerto, eso queda a discreción de cada uno de los lectores de estas lídenies, but whatever the case, el nuevo contó con todos los estudios necesarios del caso para avalar su construcción, tanto en líneas técnicas operativas como de seguridad.
¿It's a dangerous airport?
Sea por los vientos o por la situación geográfica, the airport is not dangerous, but yesí hay que ser honestos, it is a complex airport, like all high-altitude airports or known as hot & world high.
Sí, es difícil y tiene complejidades adicionales a otros aeropuertos de estas característatic, pero tiene también ventajas muy favorables al compararlo con por ejemplo, the old airport.
Una zona de maniobra más wide, a runway located at a lower altitude, ILS system on both runways, VOR instrument procedures, ILS and RNAV 18/36 and his track 4.090 metros de largo hacen que este aeropuerto complejo tenga excelentes facilidades para la navegación and security aérea.
Esta dificultad nace de la orografía que se habló máit arrives. In the surroundings of the airport there are endless streams, which cause to be generated descending winds or wind shear más seguidos a los que también pasaban en el antiguo aeropuerto.
Additional to descending winds, there is influence of the eastern mountain range, that produce crosswinds and that together with the summer winds of the sierra, genera la concentración of 3 different variables, that undoubtedly test the national and international pilots who fly daily to Quito.
These variables, generate that in short periods of time, tanto la dirección como la velocidad del viento, suddenly change, what generates acquaintances “engine and air” or missed approaches.
You have to remember that the pilotos están altamente entrenados y capacitados to deal with all these types of events that affect the normality of a flight, but it does not compromise security. In the cabin, los pilotos tienen que seguir parámetros de aproximación estrictos y en caso de que por cambios de viento se vieran afectados, Startán por seguridad, una aproximación frustrada.
Definitely, the winds in certain cases, pueden generar potencialmente situaciones más delicadas en un vuelo, but alsoén las aeronaves actuales están designñadas para alertar a la tripulación y afrontarlos debidamente.
Todas las condiciones explicadas aquí triggerán más de un susto, strong turbulence, missed approaches or landings, pero tengan la seguridad que toda la industria de la aviación ecuatoriana y del mundo, Eastá altamente preparada para mantener la seguridad ante estas situaciones.
high altitude airports
A height field is considered, usually, to those airports that are on the 8.000 pies o 2.438 meters high (the current Mariscal Sucre of Quito is located 7.910 pies o 2.411 meters).
La operationón en altura siempre traerá to the airíneas y pilotos factores adicionales de complejidad, but it isán listos para esto. Volar en altura implica que por ejemplo, la potencia de los motores se vea disminuida según disminuye la presión atmosphereérica, uso de slats y flaps e incluso en algunos aeropuertos los pilotos realizan la aproximación con máscaras de oxigeno.
Los aeropuertos de altura siempre tendrán su particularidades. Bogotaá, Peace, Cusco and others, but comparing them is not relevant, ya que cada uno tendrá sus propias complicaciones debido a dónde isán ubicados, its climate and others, but yesí permite poner en referencia que Quito no es el único aeropuerto que experimenta situaciones así.
airports, planes and the wind
Tampoco es comparable el Aeropuerto de Quito por las particularidades comentadas arriba con otros aeropuertos del mundo donde el viento es aún más fuerte.
For instance, se han visto casos en Las Vegas donde el viento ha sobrepasado las ráfagas de 65 knots and in Quito it has not exceeded 37 knots. not comparable, but yesí permite poner una perspectiva diferente, de que no solo aquí vivimos con el viento y turbulencia.
La mejor forma de ver el efecto del viento en los aviones y cómo los pilotos están entrenados para esto, son vídeos de alrededor del mundo para tener una referencia de este fenóless:
The objective of this post is to put into perspective the reality of the Quito Airport, donde sí hay una dificultad adicional por lo expuesto máit arrives, hornbeamán demoras o desvíos a otros aeropuertos, but it is something that happens all over the world.
Marshal Sucre it is not a dangerous airport, but yesí es un mayor desafíor en época de verano para las tripulaciones a quienes todos agradecemos por su diario profesionalismo, todo siempre dentro de la estricta seguridad aérea que un aeropuerto internacional de esta categoría requiere y cuenta.
El ingreso de nuevas aerolíneas a Quito avala la seguridad de operar ahí, Therefore, as users, we must rest assured that international standards are fully complied with at all times..
Wind shears is a very critical situation to operate aircraft when landing
The airport that has them is critical
As long as the airlines continue to divert their flights to safe airports such as Guayaquil, there will be no risk of accidents and it is recommended to avoid landing in these conditions.
This should also be instructed by the control center, the tower and the DAC, sorry for the inconvenience, but that is the Quito airport
I wanted to know what happened to the Iberia plane that had an incident when landing at the airport on Saturday 11 August and according to what I have read in a comment on airliners.net, the A340-600 has been stranded in Quito for two weeks. Could you give me more details about it?? Or why don't you put a new post with detailed information about what happened?. I would like to know the details. I even know there's a video (the one I saw of very poor quality) where you can see the aborted landing but it was bad enough so it blew out a tire. If you can tell me more about it, I would really appreciate it.. By the way, thanks for this excellent blog., I've been following it since you started!
Hello david, Thanks for your comment. We have to wait for the report to find out what happened to Iberia, but in any case, the plane already left for Madrid ago 1 week.
The plateau where the new Quito airport in Tababela was built is a dry and desert sector, a loamy soil that is more sandy than clayey, which makes it vulnerable to erosion, the dust clouds that rise in summer especially, that is why they placed grass next to the platform and taxiway partially minimized this situation. Nevertheless, I think that it is not a geographically stable ground, that is why the Collas road has terraces to avoid landslides. The airport is not built flat or there are subsidences and slopes are seen from the beginning to the end of the runway. The ravines are a limiting aspect due to the winds, fog, cloudiness, etc… that in a flat place without ravines they are usually different and for air operations there are more risks of serious accidents than other aerodromes just beyond the safety zone if a take-off is aborted precisely because of the huge gaps and ravines.
Finally, Quito and its surroundings do not have better nearby places that are flat, and no matter how much they have done meteorological studies more than thirty years ago, the situation for aviation in climatic terms is almost the same but today the operability with the help of technology is better.
Agree with your comment Carlos.
The Tababela airport was built with studies that are more than thirty years old, so I think that the meteorological and other conditions changed at the time of its construction and that is why there are additional difficulties to those considered at that time.
I would like to see these studies and also be able to know if they were updated at any time in the analysis of climatic factors before or during construction.
What is difficult for Latin American aviation, particularly in the Andes, is finding flat sites… Many sites are already populated and if they are semi or partially empty, as happened in Tababela, they have streams. In other countries that have more money, the geography can be improved with landfills for future expansions and improvements in terms of operability, the negative aspects with engineering., but in Tababela I do not think it is feasible due to its enormous cost and size in the ravines…
As you say, Nicolás Tababela has advantages compared to the old airport and with better technologies in the future, there will be even fewer limitations under current conditions.