Delhi airport system crash due to manual procedural error: Raytheon

The crash of the air traffic management (ATM) system at IGI Airport last week, endangering large number of lives, seems to have been caused by "a manual procedural error", a US technology firm which is upgrading the aviation technology here, said today.

As enquiries by Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA)and Airports Authority of India (AAI) were continuing, Raytheon said, "the interruption of the ATM system appears to have been caused by a manual procedural error."

On the evening of January 14, the automation system at the ATC tower crashed while Raytheon's AutoTrac II system was being upgraded. This led to severe air traffic congestion over the Delhi air space which could have endangered lives.

The US company's AutoTrac III system, which is currently in 'shadow' mode or is operational but not being fully used, "was quickly put into service to mitigate the impact on flight operations", a Raytheon spokesperson said in a statement from Washington.

"We have been working with our customer since the incident occurred to help with AAI's on-going inquiry and to determine what additional procedural steps can be taken to prevent future interruptions," he said.

Maintaining that Raytheon would continue to assist AAI in its ongoing investigations into the incident, he claimed that Autotrac-II, which is currently being operated by the ATC here, has been installed at over 30 locations around the world and has "an excellent performance record".