September 24, 1999

News

Flights hit by control malfunction

By SUSHI DAS TRANSPORT REPORTER

Flights from airports in major cities across the southern half of Australia were delayed yesterday after the communication system between air traffic controllers failed twice.

Airservices Australia was unable to say how many flights were affected but indicated that safety at airports in Sydney, Perth, Melbourne, Adelaide and Hobart was not compromised. An investigation into the problem is under way.

A spokeswoman, Ms Vicki Huggins, said aircraft were delayed up to 30minutes after the communication system went down at 10.14am and then again at 12.05pm. The voice switching and control system was brought back on line within 30minutes after both failures, she said.

``There was a hardware failure that caused a malfunction in our communications system. We immediately reverted to our secondary back-up communication system which worked fine,'' she said.

Ms Huggins said communication between air traffic controllers and pilots was not affected, but air traffic controllers had difficulty communicating with each other. The controllers were forced to use a back-up system of telephones, rather than a faster touch screen system.

``When the problem struck it did not affect our ability to communicate with aircraft and pilots, but it slowed communication between air traffic control consoles. At no time was safety affected,'' she said.

``Because of the problem we instituted contingency plans to ensure safety. We temporarily suspended departures for 30minutes. In that time we called in technicians.''

Ms Huggins said she was unaware of the problem happening before and could not guarantee that it would not happen again.

A complete upgrade of Australia's air traffic system began in July last year and is expected to be completed by early next year.

Ms Huggins said the communication system was under normal operating conditions yesterday and the failures were not linked to the upgrade work.

The Civil Aviation and Safety Authority last night described the incident as a blip, saying safety was not affected and a report would be prepared.

``Whilst it was not great for travellers, Airservices Australia switched over to emergency mode and were able to cover,'' said a spokesman, Mr David Rawlins.

http://www.theage.com.au/daily/990924/news/news15.html

-- Homer Beanfang (Bats@inbellfry.com), September 24, 1999

Answers

``There was a hardware failure that caused a malfunction in our communications system. We immediately reverted to our secondary back- up communication system which worked fine,'' she said.

Case closed

-- (sickofthis@crap.com), September 24, 1999.

sick of this crap....

The emergency back up system worked fine now, but is it y2k compliant and will it work next year? Points to ponder......

-- Kathy (y2k@sunvalley.net), September 24, 1999.

Read between the lines little troll...

"A complete upgrade of Australia's air traffic system began in July last year and is expected to be completed by early next year."

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), September 24, 1999.