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My Take
Don’t just fix the air-traffic control system, fix the department that runs it
Consider spinning off air traffic control to another entity to avoid any more embarrassing problems
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Alex Lo has been an SCMP columnist since 2012, covering major issues affecting Hong Kong and the rest of China.
Our civil aviation officials have been busy trying to fix a HK$1.5-plus billion disaster of an air-traffic control system sold to us by US defence company Raytheon.
I hope they do it quickly before putting any lives at risk.
But when all the dust is settled, it may be time to overhaul not just the flight control system but the Civil Aviation Department itself.
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The department has put Hong Kong in this embarrassing and potentially dangerous situation by its ill-advised purchase of the Auto Trac III system. Yet, the government still depends on the department to rectify the problem. It is even expanding the department’s management in anticipation of the airport’s planned third runway.
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There has to be a law of government bureaucracy that says when a major department screws up big time, expand it and throw more taxpayer money at it. Far from giving the department more flight control responsibility, we should consider taking it away. That is the best suggestion I have heard from my fellow columnist Albert Cheng King-hon – except he proposed that the Airport Authority take it over.
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