‘1 crash led to system collapse at IGI’

New Delhi The entire communication network of the Air Traffic Control (ATC) tower crashed on Thursday evening when an official from the US firm that has installed the system at IGI Airport tried to revive one computer screen that had gone “blank”, an initial probe has found.
“One of the 15 consoles at the ATC tower had gone blank, which was being revived in consultation with an official from Raytheon (US firm that has installed the Auto Track-II system for the ATC),” a top Airports Authority of India (AAI) official told Newsline on Friday. “The entire network crashed during that attempt.”
Raytheon’s India head A K Mathur refused to comment when Newsline asked him the question.
AAI chairperson V P Agrawal said: “Such a situation should never occur again. We will now develop standard operating procedures in case the ATC faces such an eventuality again.”
The Auto Track-II system gives frequencies to air traffic controllers from four points: start-up, taxiing, take-off clearance, and control area.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is conducting a detailed inquiry into the cause of the collapse. A team of senior AAI officials visited the ATC tower on Friday to give a report on the cause of collapse, which would be presented to DGCA.
“Auto Track-III was being used in shadow mode on a trial basis,” Agrawal said. “So when the Raytheon Auto Track-II system failed, ATC officers tried to put operations on Track-III.”
16/01/10 Geeta Gupta/Express India

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Categories: Airports Jan 2010