Careless digging snaps cable, puts radars on blink

Chennai: It was a careless move made by the driver of an earthmover that disrupted radars and delayed several aircraft for close to 12 hours from 5.15pm on Monday. The radars were restored only around 5am on Tuesday.
The cables got damaged when an earthmover in the apron area snapped an underground optical fibre cable at two places. Blips went off air traffic controllers' screens and they were forced to switch to manual control procedures. AAI is carrying out several airside development works including readying the apron and construction of link taxiways to ensure smooth handling of aircraft.
The optical fibre cables carry signals from radar equipment to air traffic control (ATC) building. As the cables were severed, signals from the radars failed to reach ATC and caused a blackout. More than 200 flights suffered delays because the airport could handle just 16 flights per hour without radars.
"The first damage to a joint in the cable was rectified by midnight, while the second damage was repaired by early morning. It took a long time to locate the problem spots. Technicians had to brave snakes in the night to repair the fault," an official said.
The cables could be repaired only after borrowing a cable laying and slicing machine from BSNL. "AAI does not have such equipment because "we do not lay or re-lay cable often and such incidents are never supposed to happen," he added.
The Airports Authority of India (AAI) had provided a cable routing map to the contractors carrying out the works, but this was obviously not referred to.
13/05/09 V Ayyappan/Times of India

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Categories: Airports May 2009