The Category IIIB Instrument Landing System (CAT IIIB) for Runway 10 (RWY10) at Hiroshima Airport, which was damaged due to the landing accident of flight OZ162 on April 14, has been fully recommissioned starting today after 5 months of repair work.

The airport reopened on April 17 following the accident, but the ILS remained unusable. After the aircraft was removed on April 25, the operating conditions for the runway required an RVR of 1600 meters or more, which affected many flights during adverse weather conditions.

Subsequently, on May 5, Hiroshima Airport installed a temporary antenna, restoring the ILS to Category I (CAT I) operations. The operating conditions for the CAT I system are: a Decision Height of 200 feet or above, and a Runway Visual Range (RVR) of 550 meters (1800 feet) or more, or a visibility of 800 meters or more.

By late August, the airport installed new ILS antennas and conducted flight inspections on August 27 and 28. As the results were normal, operations using the new antennas began on August 29, though the system classification remained at CAT I.

On September 15 of this month, the airport upgraded the ILS classification to CAT IIIA.

The original plan was to upgrade back to CAT IIIB after 500 hours of operation on the CAT IIIA system without any issues. As no problems have been reported so far, CAT IIIB operations have resumed today. This improves the RVR requirement to 100 meters or more, a significant improvement compared to the previous 550 meters.

For information on Instrument Landing System classifications, please refer to the previously summarized article “Airline Pilot 5.4 Instrument Approach Chart”.

Additionally, the airports in Japan capable of supporting Category III landings are:

• Kushiro Airport (RWY17)
• New Chitose Airport (RWY19R)
• Aomori Airport (RWY24)
• Narita International Airport (RWY16R)
• Chubu Centrair International Airport (RWY36)
• Hiroshima Airport (RWY10)
• Kumamoto Airport (RWY07)

Making a total of 7.

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