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Cable Failure Slows Air Traffic

Source: The Press

Publication date: 2000-07-08

Air-traffic controllers were forced to slow down aircraft and move to back-up systems after the failure of a key inter-island link this week.

One of the two main cables carrying essential air-traffic data between the Christchurch control centre and towers in Wellington and Auckland was severed on Monday night, prompting Wellington air traffic control to move to five-mile separation between aircraft.

The Airways Corporation said the country's air-traffic-control system remained completely safe, carried on a second fibre-optic cable and backed up by microwave radio links.

The corporation said the extra separation between aircraft was only a contingency, and was removed on Tuesday morning.

However, Air Line Pilots' Association spokesman Adam Nicholson said yesterday that the aircraft slow-down remained in place until Thursday. The failure of the Cook Strait cable, owned by Transpower and leased to Telecom, vindicated the concerns air-traffic controllers held about shifting control of most of the country's airspace to Christchurch, Mr Nicholson said.

Electronic memos sent by Telecom consultant Peter Mannix to all Telecom staff, obtained by The Press, show that Airways and Telecom held concerns over the failure of the link.

"This will cause delays from now on until further notice. Air- traffic control are very nervous. High visibility for Airways and Telecom. Please put Airways at the top of the priority list in your contingency plan," the memo says.

The glitch is at least the third involving Airways since it shifted its Auckland centre to Christchurch. Last December a malfunction in the central computer that controls the link between the country's air-traffic radar left aircraft circling in holding patterns for up to an hour. In January another computer problem prompted controllers to increase separation between aircraft already flying.

Telecom spokeswoman Lisa-Marie Richan said the remaining operational cable could easily handle all existing data traffic. Telecom was also laying its own fibre-optic cable under Cook Strait and installing back-up microwave links, she said.

Airways' group manager technical and support, Andrew Griffiths, said the company was happy with Telecom's service. Airways had considered using more than one supplier but felt there was less risk sticking with one.

The company's response to the cable failure proved its back-up systems were "rock solid" Mr Griffiths said.

Transpower said it could take up to three months to repair the damaged cable.

http://www.wisinfo.com/postcrescent/news/071000-2.html

-- (Dee360Degree@aol.com), July 10, 2000

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Correction to above source - http://realcities.yellowbrix.com/pages/realcities/Story.nsp? story_id=11924044&site=charlotte&ID=realcities&scategory=Computers% 3AY2K

-- (Dee360Degree@aol.com), July 10, 2000.