Brazil ? Argentine authorities are breaking international air safety norms and putting passengers at risk because they haven’t fixed the country’s only certified radar, which was hit by lightning on March 1, the world’s main flight controllers organization said Monday.

That radar failure has led to five near-collisions between airplanes since March 9, including three last week, and represents a “careless abandonment” of aviation regulations, according to the Canada-based International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers’ Associations. The organization represents 50,000 controllers worldwide.

Argentine authorities called the warning an exaggeration and said a new radar would be in place in a month. “None of the Argentine or foreign airlines have stopped flying here, nor have the pilots refused to fly,” said Jorge Bernetti, a spokesman for the Defense Ministry, which oversees air traffic in Argentina.

The flight controllers’ statement on the safety situation in Argentina was a rare denunciation of local conditions by the organization. On May 1, another major international group, the International Federation of Airline Pilots’ Associations, advised its 100,000 members to “exercise extreme vigilance” when flying in Argentine airspace.