Airways Corp plays down second glitch Source: Sunday Star-Times

Publication date: Jan 23, 2000

THE country's air traffic control system broke down again last week -- the second time in a month -- but the Airways Corporation is playing down safety concerns.

Corporation spokeswoman Heather Hayden yesterday blamed Thursday's 30-minute breakdown on a "computer problem" which was still being investigated.

She confirmed a back-up system also did not work immediately but said there were no safety problems -- a third-level system was used. An air traffic controller told the Sunday Star-Times departures were delayed and controllers increased separation between aircraft already flying.

The breakdown had caused "a little bit of distress . . . especially at that time (just after 6pm) when it's very busy".

Hayden said some flights might have been delayed in Auckland -- it was a busy time with 12 departures anyway -- but she was unaware of any other delays around the country. Hayden said the breakdown was "rare but not unexpected". It had happened about five times in the past three years.

Passengers and planes were stranded at airports across the country on December 22 when crucial communication links between air traffic controllers crashed.

Airways Corp blamed that on a malfunction in a central computer.

Civil Aviation has been investigating that breakdown but a spokesman could not be contacted yesterday on the latest problem.

Hayden said the incidents were not related.

Airways Corp introduced the $92 million revolutionary air traffic control system in 1991.

At that time old sweeping radar screens were replaced with computerised displays showing not only an aircraft's location but its altitude, call sign and route.

A letter written by controllers to corporation directors on December 24 refers to the radar failure of the previous day and suggests "there is probably worse to come".

Controllers fear a plan by the corporation to centralise its radar, computers and operations staff in Christchurch leaves air control operations wide open to catastrophic scenarios, such as earthquakes. They believe it's better to spread the risk between Auckland and Christchurch.

But corporation group manager of air navigation services Ashley Smout said Christchurch already controlled the bottom half of the North Island, all Wellington traffic and aircraft in the South Island. Last December's "software glitch" had nothing to do with centralisation.

Meanwhile, a report into the corporation has concluded its restructuring is being carried out in a commercially-sound way. Last week, Minister of State-owned Enterprises Mark Burton called for a report from the Crown Company Monitoring Unit (CCMAU) after the Sunday Star-Times reported redundant air traffic controllers were having to be rehired on temporary contracts to work in Christchurch

Link to story:

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-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), January 29, 2000

Answers

A "revolutionary system"? Tags for the aircraft with location,etc. only came in 1991? Yikes. But this is just like FAA. "No safety was compromised". No, of course not, you just increased separation and slowed down traffic to a crawl so that every plane backed up on the tarmac (cf. recent FAA Northeastern outages). BTW, that is just what I feared at rollover, and because no one was flying, greater separations were possible when the reported rollover glitches occurred (a self-corrected problem)

*However*, given the vagaries of air traffic control, it would be very to isolate this NZ incident as a y2k glitch unless some controllers or specialists (like those of PASS) are willing or able to come forward. For example "more problems to come" could be a reference to future computer system capacity problems, which is exactly the problem FAA faced in the late 1980s and early 1990s

-- Bud Hamilton (budham@hotmail.com), January 29, 2000.