Air traffic management system collapse at Delhi International Airport disrupts flights

The sophisticated air traffic management system at the IGI Airport in New Delhi, which was operationalised in March, crashed this evening disrupting flight movements for almost 30 minutes.

Incoming and outgoing flights were disrupted between 1750 hours and 1820 hours as the Autotrac-III system crashed, resulting in the air traffic control (ATC) screens going blank, the airport sources said.

However, the ATC officials quickly switched over to the earlier system - Autotrac-II - to restore air traffic, the sources said.

This is the third time this year that the air traffic management system at the airport has collapsed. The system had crashed twice in January when US company Raytheon's Autotrac-III system was being tested for installation.

The sources said that no incoming flight was diverted to any other airport but they were made to hover over the Delhi airspace till the Autotrac-II system was made operational.

An Airports Authority of India spokesperson said that the two Autotrac systems were working simultaneously. "There were some problems in Autotrac-III for a few minutes. There was no disruption to any flight in any way".