The Tribune

By FAY SIMMONS

Tribune Staff Reporter

jsimmons@tribunemedia.net

A FLIGHT to North Eleuthera from Atlanta had to turn around due to airport weather station issues last week. 

Jeffrey Simmons, acting director of the Department of Meteorology, explained that the department’s automated weather station (AWS) at the North Eleuthera airport had been damaged by a lightning strike, and was unable to transmit weather information to incoming planes. 

Due to this, a Delta flight heading from Atlanta to North Eleuthera last Wednesday got as far as Central Florida before returning to Atlanta due to a lack of weather information on the ground in Eleuthera.

 Mr Simmons said: “Delta was in route to Eleuthera, they actually came all the way down to Central Florida and then they turned around and went back to Atlanta and their reason was the weather instruments there were not working.”

 He added that once Civil Aviation and the Department of Meteorology were made aware of the situation, a technical team was dispatched to Eleuthera to access and repair the damage the following day.

 A temporary fix was made to the AWS, but it was determined that due to the damage a brand new AWS will be installed in Eleuthera over the coming weeks.

 He said: “We found out about it and with the assistance of Civil Aviation Authority we had our technicians on the island the next morning.

 “The system was struck and severely damaged and our technicians put in a temporary fix but we realised that may not last for so long so we are installing a brand new AWS in Eleuthera and that should be finished in about two weeks.”

 The Davis administration unveiled its $260m Family Island Renaissance Programme which is expected to transform 14 Family Island airports and related infrastructure earlier this year.

 Mr Simmons said that the Department of Meteorology plans to install Automated Weather Observing Systems (AWOS), which are less susceptible to lightning damage, on the Family Islands once the respective airports have undergone reconstruction.

 He said: “The AWOS are set up in such a way that if lightning hits them the system is well protected, they also cost over $500,000, while the AWS are about $15,000.

 “We want to install them on all the Family Islands but we don’t want to put them somewhere that would be in the way of the construction work that needs to be done. They could be damaged and we don’t want to damage any equipment that costs that kind of money.”