Attempt to revive screen caused IGI radar failure

New Delhi: In an ironic twist, Thursday night's failure of the radar system at IGI Airport which endangered the safety of flights and their passengers was actually caused by attempts to revive one radar screen that had gone blank. Highly placed sources said a single radar screen that operates on local area network (LAN) went blank, after which Airports Authority of India (AAI) got in touch with the US-based company that had supplied the system, Raytheon.
"They were trying to revive the single blank screen, with help from Raytheon over phone and e-mail. This kind of revival always carries a certain risk, and the entire system crashed,'' said sources.
Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has now launched a probe which will essentially focus on two things what caused the crash and how any such incident must be avoided in future. Since reviving the system took close to an unacceptable two hours, it is in the process of finding out global time benchmarks for the job. ATC maintenance standards and schedules are now being examined. The probe is being headed by joint DG A K Chopra.
It is learnt DGCA has also directed AAI to complete ATC upgradation work at IGI, under which Raytheon's existing Auto Track-II system is being changed to the latest Track-III in a time-bound manner. In fact, on Thursday night alert air traffic controllers and the partially installed Track-III which the ATC was able to activate helped avert disaster at the airport or in the skies controlled by the Delhi tower.
16/01/10 Times of India

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Categories: Airports Jan 2010, Safety Jan 2010