Thieves Steal RW 27 LOC at BOM
 

Never mind the GPS, these guys took the localizer.

Folks, you can't make this stuff up...

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Theft of equipment hampers flights at Mumbai

From Indo-Asian News Service

Mumbai, Dec 17 (IANS) Flights to and from India's commercial capital were delayed by almost an hour for the past few days after air traffic control equipment was stolen from the city's airport, officials said Friday.

They said flights landing at Mumbai airport have had to make do with visual contact after a "localiser", part of the Instrument Landing System, was stolen Tuesday from the main runway.

Instrument Landing Systems are primarily used when visibility is poor due to fog.

The Mumbai airport, which handles 30 percent of the country's air traffic, was forced to divert flights to Ahmedabad and other airports during peak hours due to poor visibility, officials said.

On Friday alone, 30 international and domestic flights were delayed by several minutes, they said.

Though police questioned several airport employees and residents from slums along the runway, no headway was made in tracing the thieves.

Police are baffled as the theft apparently took place in broad daylight. No one noticed the thief walking away with the equipment.

http://www.eians.net/2004/12/17/17theft.html
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Absence of "localiser" upsets flight schedule :

Mumbai, Dec 16 : Flights into and out of Mumbai continued to be delayed for the second day today due to non-availability of the "localiser", an integral component of the Instrument Landing System (ILS), on the main runway-27.

The localiser, which guides the aircraft to the centre line of the runway, was found stolen around 1730 hrs on Tuesday, AAI regional executive director S R R Rao said adding a localiser was being fabricated and should be installed by tomorrow.

"The localiser, antenna rods made of aluminium which radiate electronic waves and forms part of the ILS, hardly has any material value and we are surprised that this could have happened", he said.

Flights were today delayed by 30 to 45 minutes because of delayed arrivals and stacking up of flights over the city.

At a meeting here today, the Central Industrial Security Force, which is guarding the airport, has been asked to keep a vigil on the technical equipment also as a large number of temporary labourers work in the operational area during the day, an official said.

Rao said the flights were being delayed because depending on the wind conditions, runway-09 or runway-14 was being used due to non-availability of the main runway. PTI

http://www.teamindia.net/news/index...llnews&id=44749

Good effort - could have been worse, they could have nicked the paving slabs that made up the runway itself - then where would we have been???? :\

Guess we'd get the VOR 32 where you get up close and personal with Trombay Hill...

How long till it ends up on eBay? :E

Its a pity they didnt steal the entire Airport! :}

Yeah blueloo gotta agree with that one:yuk: :yuk: :cool:

If they stole the runway slabs it would have made it smoother to land on:E

At CPT the bad boys pinched part of the cable for the landing lights a couple of year ago for the copper.

New cable was obtained at vast expense, unfortunately this was nicked from the store before it could be installed.

Presume they got it working eventually.

Cable theft (and metal theft generally) is a mega-problem in SA.

Some of the drawbacks of populist democracy and lax security!

When half the security agencies are busy protecting VIPs and film stars then what do you expect....:* :* :confused:

and in this day and age when the general public shouldn't be getting airside.....lol :}

I'm imagining a guy with a dozen bright orange aerials sticking out of his coat sidling up to me in a pub - pssst...wanna buy a localiser?

well just a subtle suggestion to any indian airport officials...perhaps you should try not pulicising the location of your ILS outer marker equipment etc so vividly?

I was in Delhi in april and,driving down a main road near the embassy district was a huge garishly painted billboard over a hut proudly proclaiming "runway outer marker".Maybe try keeping it hush-hush where the million dollar hardware is kept & thats part of your problem solved?:cool:

Too bad they didn't steal one of those AI 742s I was on a few years ago. :(

Reminds me of the night at Liverpool when someone stole the tower's receiving aerial off the roof of the remote met building. No wonder the Airbridge Merchantman on the north airfield couldn't get any replies to his calls for start!

About 20 years ago at Lagos, Nigeria (DNMM) they stole the 'LA' compass locator beacon for 19L, even cutting the night watchman's throat to do that. And many of the flush surface lights disappeared around the same time, supposedly melted down for their modest value as scrap alloy.

well its at least an upgrade from hubcaps! :} :E ;)

Africa was first
 

The Grasmere VOR (GAV) in South Africa, was stolen a few years ago. And the outer marker at Windhoek was also lifted, although it is not known if the same aviation-minded thieves were involved.

oTd

Well !

I think in MumBai's case it just might be one political leader ordering it stolen so that he can claim the oppositon to have done the Job :} as is typical of Indain Politics.

Since the dude's from the Slums are keeping quiet :mad:

Breaking news

The location ofa missing airport localiser has been been discovered.
Police managed to put two and two together when a 747 landed on a flat roofed bungalow in one of the city's suburbs.

It's not as though you could stuff it up your jumper. Surely it can't be too hard to track down a piece of bright orange lattice-work 80' long??!!

Then again, this has come from the same country where government ministers kick cockpit doors in and drag pilots out because they're getting a tad warm...