{"id":27265,"date":"2023-01-03T15:12:25","date_gmt":"2023-01-03T15:12:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2023\/01\/03\/air-traffic-system-outage-in-philippines-strands-65000-the-register\/"},"modified":"2023-01-03T15:12:25","modified_gmt":"2023-01-03T15:12:25","slug":"air-traffic-system-outage-in-philippines-strands-65000-the-register","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2023\/01\/03\/air-traffic-system-outage-in-philippines-strands-65000-the-register\/","title":{"rendered":"Air traffic system outage in Philippines strands 65,000 \u2022 The Register"},"content":{"rendered":"

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While weather and workforce strikes have affected air travel in Europe and the US this holiday season, Southeast Asia experienced disruption of its own due to a New Year’s Day power outage at Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) that shut down both flights and airspace.<\/p>\n

“At around 9:49 am local time, the Air Traffic Management Center (ATMC) which serves as the facility for controlling and overseeing all inbound and outbound flights and overflights within the Philippine airspace, went down due to power outage, resulting to loss of communication, radio, radar, and internet,” said<\/a> transport secretary Jaime Bautista in an online press conference.<\/a><\/p>\n

The outage went on for eight hours, with normal operations resuming around 18.00 the same day. While NAIA activated<\/a> its crisis management team for a “multi-discipline approach to cushion the impact of the incident” and ordered<\/a> emergency response teams to implement irregular operations procedures, more than 65,000 would-be passengers across 360-plus flights were stranded.<\/p>\n

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LOOK: Stranded passengers jampacked at NAIA Terminal 3 as flights have been put on hold over \u201ctechnical issues.\u201d (?: @NashNacion<\/a>) pic.twitter.com\/0R4TpTTgd5<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Michael Joe Delizo (@michael_delizo) January 1, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The glitch didn’t just delay passengers coming in and out of Manila, it also disrupted the Manila Flight Information Region (FIR), which covers the entirety of the Philippines. This caused all commercial flights out of the country’s airspace to be redirected.<\/p>\n

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There are currently no airborne commercial flights in the Philippines (MANILA FIR). pic.twitter.com\/xUhyPJarmE<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) January 1, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

MIAA general manager Cesar Chiong anticipated it would take approximately 72 hours to return to normal operations, with most flights coming in or out of Manila packed for the time being.<\/p>\n

According to the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP),<\/a> the loss in power originated in the Communications, Navigation, and Surveillance\/Air Traffic Management (CNS\/ATM) system’s electrical network. Of course, uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) exist to prevent this exact scenario, but neither of the system’s two backup power supplies worked.<\/p>\n

One because its blowers “conked out,” and the other simply failed to come online, according to CAAP director general Manuel Tamayo.<\/p>\n

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