For almost five tense minutes early last Friday, the entire air traffic over north India vanished from the radar controls of Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport.
NEW DELHI: For almost five tense minutes early last Friday, the entire air traffic over north India vanished from the radar controls of Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport. The blip threw air traffic authorities into a tizzy and heightened fears of possible mishaps for a brief while.
The unacceptable lapse was the result of a faulty radar system that controls air traffic over the region, sources told DNA. The malfunction sent shock waves all around as there is only one approach radar to monitor and control all air traffic movement coming into Delhi.
Radar malfunctions are a very serious business because, when the screen goes blank, air traffic controllers (ATCs) do not know the location of aircraft flying into Delhi. The incident took place around 1 am when the airport handles mostly international flights. At the precise moment, four aircraft were flying in and around Delhi airspace, sources said.
Sources said the “approach radar” screen went off in the control tower and, for around five minutes, all aircraft were on their own while flying in and around Delhi airspace.
The Director-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has been informed of the radar failure and the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has initiated an internal investigation, sources said “The radar failure has been reported, and a probe has been ordered to find out the exact cause that led the radar to pack up,” a senior AAI official told DNA on condition of anonymity.
For ATCs, the radar failure was no less than a midnight nightmare. “It was truly a frightening sight when the radar screen showed the message that it is shutting down the system, and the screen, in a fraction of a second, just went blank,” said a senior ATC official.
The locations of aircraft shown in the approach radar help controllers to decide on the degree of horizontal separation between two aircraft, the alignment of aircraft with the localiser of the instrument landing system (ILS) while landing on the runway, and, most importantly, in tracking rogue aircraft flying in Indian airspace.
During that five minutes, it was possible for an aircraft to stray into the no-fly zone over Parliament, or the Prime Minister's residence. A rogue aircraft could have entered the region without the controllers getting to know about it. “In those five minutes, if any aircraft had strayed into the no-fly zone, it would have gone unnoticed,” said the ATC official.
As the radar shut down, panic gripped the control tower. There were frantic efforts to revive the approach radar, but the efforts weren’t successful. As crucial seconds passed, the controllers opened another “radar scope,” which is a standby support gadget for the main approach radar. “
“It took some time to configure it and, during those few minutes, everyone just prayed that nothing goes wrong in a”r,” says an official. “After five minutes, the approach radar automatically switched on and started functioning normally, but its recurring faults will land all of us in great trouble,” said an airport source.
Sources told DNA that the approach radar, installed in May, 2007, seems to suffer from the problem of erratic switching off and on. It also reportedly has other problems, including regular, unwarranted blips. Airport sources say that the tracker on the approach radar has not been functioning properly and on the radar screen it jumps the actual location of the aircraft.
This means that there is difference in the actual position of an aircraft in the air and that shown on the radar screen. This difference in location makes it difficult to keep track of aircraft in the region.
“Suppose an aircraft is using runway 27, and while over-flying Safdarjung airport (a smaller airport used by amateur flyers in Delhi), it strays over the PM’s residence or any other no-fly zone, then the chances of spotting the aircraft diversion are minimal with this faulty radar. That could lead to very serious trouble,” said another airport official.
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