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Systems at Delhi international airport restored after two hours

The software, installed by a US-based company Raytheon for automation and surveillance systems of air navigation, failed while being upgraded.

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The Air Traffic Control(ATC) system at IGI airport crashed during peak hour today disruptingflight operations for around two hours and creating chaos on a day when fog had already thrown air traffic out of gear.

The navigation system software crashed leading to landing and take-off delays involving around 40 aircraft of various airlines compounding the misery caused by disruption of 100 flights due to fog affecting thousands of passengers.

A software glitch was being blamed for the crash and it took about two hours to reboot the entire system to make it functional once again, airport sources said tonight. The air navigation system, which was being upgraded, failed bringing flight operations to a halt at around 6 pm, the sources said.

The software, installed by a US-based company Raytheon for automation and surveillance systems of air navigation, failed while being upgraded and ATC people got in contact with the company to rectify the fault.

"The automation system and display units of ATC failed at the IGI airport around 1744 hours. However, communication and Radar system were working normal," Airports Authority of India, Executive Director, Air Traffic Management, V Somasundaram told PTI.

ATC personnel resorted to manual handling of flights over the Delhi and adjoining air space including Srinagar, Lahore, Khajuraho and Lucknow. Some landings and departures were also handled in this manner.

By manual handling of flights, the distance between two aircraft in the airspace, which is generally 5 to 10 nautical miles while being handled in automated mode, was increased to 80 nautical miles to ensure there was no compromise on safety. Normalcy in flight operations was resumed around 8 pm, sources said.

Raytheon, which has been upgrading Indian air navigation system, is a major player in designing innovative solutions for air traffic management. After the crash of the navigation system, the controllers adopted the alternative mode of handling of the traffic, following the standard procedure and other support system.

During this period, aircraft operations continued with reduced capacity. However, due to peak traffic some of the planes were held up on ground to accomodate the arriving aircrafts, he said.

During the period of system failure, between 5.44 pm to 7.30 hours, 27 arriving and six departuring flights were handled and there were no diversions, Somasundaram said. The exact cause of system failure is being investigated, he added.

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