When one flies over this fair island of ours, one is astounded by the large number of telecommunication towers that have sprung up during the last few years. Not only are they an eyesore but they are a hazard to General Aviation (GA), as they are not marked in any map or chart available to aviators. Known as ‘man-made relief’, they stick out over and above the ‘natural relief’, as telecommunication signals rely on line of sight for successful transmission. For instance on mountain peaks.

Is there really a need to have so many towers in the first place? There are five mobile telephone providers in the land, and I believe they all have their own towers. Like other countries, they should minimise the threat and have only ONE tower to serve all five service providers.

If and when GA is liberalised, there will be two types of rules under which light aircraft will be required to operate. The first is Instrument Flight Rules (IFR), and the second is Visual Flight Rules (VFR). Under certain weather conditions, light aircraft will be dispatched under ‘Special Visual Flight Rules’, which essentially means that the pilot flies his aircraft clear of cloud and in sight of ground or water. This type of operation is the most vulnerable, as during the day these towers cannot always be seen because the automatic red warning/hazard lights will be turned off and national regulations and requirements do not call for the towers to have white strobe (flashing) lights fitted on them.

The Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (TRC) and Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) should take action to quickly eliminate this menace before some hapless pilot collides with one of these towers because he/she failed to see and avoid it.