Letters / How much is it going to cost?
The subject of these remote towers needs to have greater attention paid to, as all of the taxpayers in Scotland will be expected to pay for it.
https://www.shetnews.co.uk/2020/10/12/remote-tower-technology-has-no-benefits-to-shetland/
Having been a professional in the aviation industry for over 40 years, my first question would be: how much do they think this is going to cost?
We all know that with any project like this, they say it is going to cost this much, then low and behold it ends up costing twice as much.
So you reckon it is going to be as safe and is going to save you loads of money?
Please tell me: are you are going to be able to reduce the number of air traffic controllers that you have?
You save some money there, but you are going to have to employ a lot more expensive engineers to maintain all this expensive equipment.
You are going to need three secure Internet lines from all over the place to an office block in Inverness. They are also going to have to set up a secure energy supply to this office block, and to all the cameras on these various locations.
What happens when you get seagull poop all over your camera; whom are you going to get to get up there to clean the lens?
What happens if the system breaks down in the Shetland Isles? All air traffic will stop, including the helicopters going to and from the oilrigs. That will see the oil companies fighting for compensation for not being able to operate.
If the engineers are not based in Shetland, how long will the airport have to stay closed, waiting for the engineer to arrive by boat?
The government hardly has a good record for getting these contracts right. The very last thing that should be allowed to happen is for anybody in government to have anything to do with the safety of people’s lives.
People need to fight this now!
Simon Rochester
Dingwall
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