RWANDA GETS NEW WEATHER RADAR TO IMPROVE FLIGHT SAFETY
(Posted 25th July 2014)
The Rwandan government has purchased a new weather radar system from the United States which will, when delivered later this year, be installed near the site of the planned new Bugesera International Airport. This state of the art equipment will allow the meteorological department to issue better weather information for crews preparing their flight plan out of Kigali and will also be able to give aircraft enroute to Rwanda more accurate advance warning of severe weather conditions and storms which could affect flight safety. This will be of growing importance as RwandAir continues to expand the fleet and more foreign airlines are starting to fly into Kigali, considering the tropical storms which can sweep into the country from both Lake Victoria and also from the Congo’s rainforest basin.
Besides weather information for the aviation industry will other sectors which depend on more accurate forecasts also benefit as advancing bad weather can be spotted a long distance out, supplemented of course from satellite weather data to which the Rwandan met department also has access.
