What led to this week’s air site visitors flight disruption – and the way a repeat might be prevented

Aug 30, 2023 at 1:24 PM
What led to this week’s air site visitors flight disruption – and the way a repeat might be prevented

An air site visitors management boss has confirmed it was “unreliable” flight information that prompted the technical failure behind disruption to 1000’s of flights this week.

Martin Rolfe, chief govt of National Air Traffic Services, said an initial investigation discovered the collapse of the system was brought on by flight information which its system didn’t perceive and “couldn’t interpret”.

However, avoiding a repeat situation entails as a lot of a give attention to the backup plan for when issues go unsuitable as on the system itself.

Codes are key to air site visitors

When pilots submit their flight plans to air site visitors management, they accomplish that in code.

A mix of letters and numbers tells operators about each key element of their deliberate route – from the estimated time of arrival, to the flight stage.

If a pilot inputs a determine incorrectly or enters an uncommon plan, the system would usually reject it and it must be re-entered manually.

This occurs usually and is often filtered out.

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Why the fault took time to seek out

Occasionally, an error in a flight plan could cause the complete planning system to enter a fault state, which suggests it can’t be used till the error is discovered and stuck.

Air site visitors controllers then sift by 1000’s of flight plans to seek out the entry that tripped the system.

The final time this occurred was a decade in the past.

When this happens, there’s a backup system in place that shops information for a further 4 hours to permit operators to seek out the fault.

The glitch occurred at 8.30am on Monday morning, nevertheless it took controllers round eight hours to determine the error, that means the system was shut down utterly for 4 hours.

Read extra:
Why you’re not allowed off the plane if your flight is delayed
Am I entitled to compensation after air traffic control chaos?

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How many flights have been cancelled?

Drive to modernise ageing tech

The planning system itself is a legacy know-how from many years in the past and a drive is below technique to modernise it and for international locations to cooperate to develop cross-border programs.

But if the backup system had better capability to retailer information and permit controllers longer to determine errors, the disruption on Monday may have been prevented.

Michelle Robson, a former air site visitors controller and editor of the Turning Left for Less web site, mentioned: “It’s important to note the situation was not unsafe at any point.

“The purpose there was enormous disruption was as a result of this means of going handbook is there to make sure the controllers can management safely they usually get the right info in time for them to have the ability to do this.”