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[Fair Use: For Educational and Research Purposes Only]Safety scare as air traffic computer fails
26jul00
SYDNEY Airport's air traffic control system yesterday suffered its second major safety scare within a month, with the loss of a key computer link causing controllers to suspend all takeoffs for 10 minutes.
The link between a Melbourne computer that tracks aircraft flight paths and the Sydney control tower was lost from 8.03am. Air traffic controllers were forced to monitor planes already in the air using a fallback system of radar and radio.
Six aircraft awaiting departure clearance had to wait until the link was re- established, when overstretched controllers had time to concentrate on takeoffs. Other departing planes were delayed at their gates.
Passengers on one flight were mistakenly told by their pilot that the airport's radar system had failed as it had earlier this month when 20 planes disappeared from radar screens after routine maintenance sparked a power failure.
This is not the first time the computer connection has failed.
The Sydney link to computer mainframes in Brisbane and Melbourne has broken twice this year. The union responsible for maintenance of air traffic control systems said ongoing staff cutbacks would see more technical problems at airports.
Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union spokesman Dan Dwyer said its maintenance force at Airservices Australia had been cut by 20 per cent since last year, with more cuts to come.
"You can expect more outages," Mr Dwyer said.
Airservices Australia spokesman Richard Dudley said the connection that failed is similar to an Internet connection.
"It doesn't affect radar and it doesn't affect communications," Mr Dudley said. "Six planes were asked to wait between 8.03am and 8.13am. There was no impact on arriving aircraft."
Mr Dudley said the link had been lost twice previously this year, causing delays both times.
"We haven't yet established what triggers it. It is like finding a needle in a haystack."
He said safety had not been compromised and work was continuing to correct the problem.
But Mr Dwyer rejected the notion that ongoing technical problems were not compromising safety.
"Things like this create confusion and uncertainty in the minds of air traffic controllers and pilots," Mr Dwyer said. "It must have an impact on safety."
Peter McGuane, president of the Civil Air Operations Officers Association of Australia, the air traffic controllers' union, said technology used in control towers was a vast improvement on old systems, but it needed to have the right level of technical support.
"We have concerns that these sorts of problems arise with the frequency they have arisen and there is an overall concern about the level of change," he said.
http://dailytelegraph.com.au/common/story_page/0,4511,987872%255E702,00.html
-- (Dee360Degree@aol.com), July 26, 2000