Air traffic control outage

[Roderick Smith]

Roderick.

September 25 2017 Sydney Airport flights grounded by air traffic control outage.
An outage at Sydney Airport air traffic control grounded flights to and from the country's largest airport during one of its busiest periods.
The systems were down from about 5.20am Monday, as thousands of passengers converged on the airport at the start of school holidays.
Flight chaos after air traffic control outage.
Flights around Australia have been thrown into disarray after a failure involving air traffic control at Sydney Airport. Vision courtesy Seven News.
It took about three hours to resolve the software fault which caused flight delays and cancellations around Australia.
An Airservices Australia spokeswoman said the technical issues which plagued Sydney Airport had been resolved but flights would be delayed throughout the day.
Passengers have been told air traffic control had suffered a "power outage". Photo: Bloomberg .
"Airservices experienced a software issue affecting Sydney Airport's air traffic control and management system, resulting in major disruptions to flight operations this morning," she said.
"The software fault failed to convert from night-shift operations to day-shift operations, consequently one air traffic control console was operational for the morning peak when in normal circumstances six to eight consoles are operating.
"The safety of the travelling public is our first priority and traffic capacity was reduced to maintain safety standards."
There were chaotic scenes at Sydney Airport earlier in the morning as passengers on all airlines were told they would not be able to depart.
Passengers at Sydney were advised to board their planes but then had to wait on the tarmac. A number of flights were cancelled.
Arrivals were also affected with airline staff saying only 15 planes could land per hour. Under normal circumstances, a maximum of 80 aircraft arrivals and departures per operational hour is allowed.
A Sydney Airport spokeswoman said passengers should check with their airline to see if their flight is affected.
A Melbourne Airport spokesman confirmed that some flights were held back due to the outage at Sydney airport.
Passengers on a Virgin flight waiting to depart Sydney were told that flight plans were being submitted by fax before being processed manually by air traffic control staff.
Grounded passengers took to social media to express their frustration with the lack of information being provided about flights.
The Sydney problem will have major knock-on effects for the whole country throughout the day.
"If one airport sneezes the others will catch the cold because we're all interconnected," a Brisbane Airport Corporation spokeswoman said.
She said knock-on delays were already being felt in Brisbane from the Sydney event.
"A lot of flights will be impacted because it is one of the busiest routes to and from Brisbane."
Melbourne Airport also confirmed likely delays throughout the day.
http://www.theage.com.au/business/aviat ... ynwy6.html

25.9.17 Investigation launched into flight chaos caused by air traffic control outage.
An investigation has been launched into an air-traffic control outage at Sydney Airport that caused major disruptions for thousands of passengers after more than 340 flights were delayed or cancelled.
The system went into meltdown shortly after 5am on Monday at Australia's largest airport, just as passengers began arriving to catch flights for the start of school holidays.
Flight chaos after air traffic control outage.
Flights around Australia have been thrown into disarray after a failure involving air traffic control at Sydney Airport. Vision courtesy Seven News.
Chaotic scenes played out throughout the morning as passengers on all airlines at the domestic and international terminals were told they would not be able to depart due to the outage.
It took Airservices, the agency managing the country's airspace, about two hours to resolve the software fault but most of the rest of the day to clear the massive backlog of flights from the incident, which caused a knock-on effect throughout the network.
Sydney Airport flights grounded by air traffic control outage .
Planes were held on the ground at Melbourne, Brisbane and scores of other airports due the problems plaguing Sydney.
In the wake of the incident, Airservices said it would conduct a full investigation into the outage to try to ensure it did not happen again.
The government-owned body blamed a software fault, which led to a failure of the system to convert from night-shift to day-shift operations. As a result, only one of eight air traffic control consoles operated during the morning peak.
Controllers reduced flight movements at the airport from 80 to just 15 an hour, which were made available for only aircraft landing. All aircraft due to depart were grounded.
The flight delays and cancellations caused huge crowds to fill Sydney Airport's terminals. Photo: AAP .
In all, 305 flights were delayed on the ground and 40 cancelled at Sydney Airport. Airservices did not have figures available on the number of flights cancelled or delayed at other airports but it was understood to have been significant.
Grounded passengers took to social media during the incident to express their frustration with the lack of information provided about flights.
Qantas had to cancel seven flights as a result of the outage. Photo: Bloomberg .
By about 9am, air traffic controllers were able to handle 80 flight movements an hour. However, they were still trying to clear a backlog of flights across the country's network late on Monday.
Peter McGuane, the executive secretary at the air traffic controllers' union, Civil Air, said the outage caused a ripple effect nationwide, especially at the east coast's two other major airports of Melbourne and Brisbane.
Airservices, which recently reduced its workforce by about 700 people as part of cost-cutting measures, ruled out a cyberattack for the software fault.
Virgin Australia said it had been in contact with Airservices' management team throughout the day and would be part of the review into the outage. The airline had to cancel more than 20 flights on Monday as a result.
The Tourism and Transport Forum, an industry lobby group, seized on the disruption to call for the federal government to provide "further operating flexibility" by increasing the hourly cap on aircraft movements from 80 to at least 85.
But federal Labor transport spokesman Anthony Albanese said the latest incident showed why the cap of 80 movements an hour was "necessary and is important".
"This is just them playing politics, and pretending somehow that you can get more out of Sydney Airport than is possible," he said.
A report into the outage will be handed to federal Transport Minister Darren Chester and the Civil Aviation Safety Authority once completed.
http://www.theage.com.au/nsw/investigat ... yoccl.html