Nice airport — pity about the deadly winds
Turbulence Ahead | Construction group Basil Read says it’s not to blame if St Helena’s airport is a white elephant
NEVILLE Nicolau, CEO of construction company Basil Read, which has built a R4.6-billion airport for the British government on the island of St Helena, says it is not their problem if strong crosswinds make it too dangerous for planes to land there.
The eagerly anticipated opening of the airport has been delayed indefinitely because of safety concerns.
“We’re the contractor, we built the airport. We’re not the pilot who has to land the plane or the contracting company that has to fly the plane,” says Nicolau.
Reports in the British media suggest the airport, which is perched on top of vertical cliffs, could become a very expensive white elephant and embarrassment to the British government after test flights revealed extreme turbulence and windshear on the runway approach.
Windshear is a sudden, powerful change in wind direction which can destabilise or even flip large aircraft.
A former deputy chairman of the Conservative Party, Lord Ashcroft, said he had to abandon a planned visit to the island because of “serious concerns that the airport is too dangerous to use”.
Questions are being raised about the design of the runway and whether the extreme conditions on the remote South Atlantic island were factored in.
Pilots say the likelihood of windshear was perfectly predictable given the location of the airport with sheer cliffs at either end. Nicolau rejects this. “Windshear is something the pilots and the British government, who initiated the construction of the airport, didn’t know about before.”
While the design and building were Basil Read’s responsibility, the issue of how to deal with windshear is for Comair and its pilots to sort out.
“Ours was a design and build contract, but design and build from an airport point of view. It is up to other companies to decide on flight issues.
“Windshear is not a fatal flaw in the system.”
Comair is being subsidised by British Airways to operate a weekly commercial service to the island. Until now, the only way of getting there has been on a mail ship that takes seven days as opposed to five hours by plane.
“It is their choice, together with the client, the British government, it is their responsibility to decide what size of plane and how regularly to fly and under what circumstances to fly,” says Nicolau.
Using a smaller plane than Comair’s Boeing 737-800, and providing two flights a week rather than one, or reducing the load are possible options, along with altering the direction of approach depending on the wind.
“The British government has a contract with Comair to fly this route, so it is their responsibility to make sure the landing is safe.”
Did Basil Read consult aviation experts to ensure planes would be able to land safely no matter the conditions?
“As far as we contributed to that side of things, we absolutely did that. The airport and layout of the runways are built with the aim of getting certification for the airport. It has to be certified as an international airport that can land a certain size of plane and so on. We did that.
“OR Tambo and Lanseria are certified airports but if the cloud cover is too low or there is a thunderstorm overhead, then planes are not allowed to land. That doesn’t mean the airports were badly designed, or that thunderstorms were not considered.
“It’s unfair to say that we messed up. We built the airport with the environmental conditions in mind.”
So why hasn’t it been officially opened yet?
“Part of the problem is the commercial viability of flying the size of plane that they have. There is one flight a week to St Helena. If that flight is turned back on a regular basis, then you lose money.”
Former BA pilot Brian Heywood has been quoted as saying he warned British Prime Minister David Cameron and the department for international development, which financed the airport, about the windshear problem, and that trying to run scheduled flights would be an “operational shambles”.
There isn’t windshear every day, says Nicolau. But he concedes that statistically there is a NOT OUR PROBLEM: Neville Nicolau, CEO of Basil Read, says the company fulfilled its duties under the St Helena airport contract possibility it will force planes to turn back on a regular basis.
“The environmental conditions around the airport mean you will be turning back a certain number of flights. If you do that then it is not a commercially viable route. The British government will have to decide whether they’re going to subsidise it or change the airport to meet the weather conditions.”
Isn’t this what Basil Read should have done?
“We had to build the airport to be a certain size, to meet certain specifications. We have done that. We took all of these factors into consideration.”
But not the possibility of windshear?
“This was something that was not known about. You can’t see windshear. But the airport is built to the specifications that met the certification of the airport. We delivered that.”
The sharpest criticism of the airport comes from Lord Ashcroft, who quotes a couple of veteran pilots — including his own chief pilot, Larry Erd, who he says has flown into war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“I can’t remember any other airport that I was this concerned about,” says Erd. “I don’t know what can be done, if anything, to solve the problem. I am a pilot, not an airport designer. But there has to be a question mark over whether St Helena can ever operate a viable airport in the future.”
Lord Ashcroft’s criticism should be seen in the light of a vendetta he has against Cameron.
He wrote a scurrilous biography of the British prime minister last year and hates him with a passion for refusing to offer him a senior position in his government.
He is likely to seize on anything that might damage Cameron, such as his government’s controversial decision to build the St Helena airport.
Nicolau says he thinks the safety issues around the airport have become a British political issue.
“One has to be careful of mixing politics, and British politics particularly, with the technical aspects of the airport.”
The airport is not unsafe, he insists. If conditions on the day are considered unsafe, then the plane won’t land.
Just as thunderstorms are a fact of life on the highveld, so windshear is a fact of life on the island.
“The idea that we’ve built this huge, expensive airport in the middle of the ocean and now planes can’t land there because of the safety issue is being unfair,” he says.
He denies that Basil Read has suffered any reputational damage.
“We built this airport on a remote island, built it on time and on budget according to agreed specifications, and got the certification done.
“It’s a successful venture from our point of view. I have no doubt that the commercial and safety issues will be sorted out in time.”
Nicolau, 56, who came to Basil Read after being fired as CEO of Anglo Platinum because the then CEO of Anglo American, Cynthia Carroll, felt he was soft on safety, has worked extensively around Africa and South America.
He says the problems at St Helena are “very minor in terms of what airports deal with all over Africa and South America on an ongoing basis”.
He says Basil Read’s relations with the British government have not been harmed by the safety issue and remain “very good”.
The company has been commissioned by the British government to build other installations for the island, including a massive fuel storage facility and a new wharf.
And, yes, it was paid for the airport in full and on time.
“The British government has been a very good payer. If all of our projects were managed like that, paid on time, resolving issues as quickly as they have done, as a company and as a sector we would be very happy.”
Ours was a design and build contract . . . It’s unfair to say we messed up This was something that was not known about. You can’t see windshear I don’t know what can be done, if anything, to solve the problem