Full surveillance of Guyana’s airspace expected in 2017, says head of Air Navigation Services

Last Updated on Wednesday, 21 December 2016, 23:04 by Denis Chabrol

Guyana will soon be able to fully monitor its airspace, according to the Civil Aviation Authority’s Air Navigational Services Director, Rickford Samaroo, who said the 2017 allocation of $350M will aid in the installation of four other navigational stations.

Those stations, according to Samaroo, are to be located at Port Kaituma, Kamarang, Kaieteur, and Annai. Already, the Timehri surveillance system, to the value of US$120,000 is about to be made functional.

Samaroo warned however this system is dependent on aircrafts to carry certain mandatory equipment to broadcast its position and intent automatically.

“It is not a security system, it is a surveillance system to manage the traffic in the airspace to improve, and increase capacity and safety,” he continued.

“If an aircraft does not turn on its transponder, we will not detect where it is,” Samaroo maintained.

Guyanese civilian and military authorities remain worried that cocaine-laden light aircraft land in the interior to drop off supplies most of which are transshipped to North America, Europe and more recently West Africa.