Airport radar meltdown due to 'faulty' component
A faulty computer device was today blamed for the €100m radar system meltdown at Dublin Airport last week which sparked days of travel chaos.
Thales ATM, the world-leading air traffic management company that developed the hardware, said it was the first time such an incident has happened.
The malfunctioning network card, a component that allows computers to communicate with each other, was also blamed for previous glitches in the Dublin system.
The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) said it has installed further computer monitoring and may boost its back-up system to prevent a repeat of last week’s scenes.
Tens of thousands of passengers were left stranded or delayed last Wednesday with severe disruption continuing for days afterwards.
Air traffic controllers manually shut down computer displays when codes which identify incoming aircraft malfunctioned twice in two hours.
Data showing the location, height and speed of approaching planes disappeared from screens for 10 minutes each time.
Thales ATM were brought in to carry out a technical examination of the system and yesterday presented its findings to the airport’s management.
“[They] confirmed the root cause of the hardware system malfunction as an intermittent malfunctioning network card which consequently overcame the built-in system redundancy,” said an IAA spokeswoman.
“Thales ATM also confirmed that the cause of the malfunction was the same for previous malfunctions which had occurred since June 2.
“Thales ATM stated that in 10 similar air traffic control Centres worldwide with over 500,000 flight hours (50 years), this is the first time an incident of this type has been reported.”
The IAA said that operations at Dublin Airport were now more or less back to normal but some delays were still being experienced at peak times.
“Factors outside the direct control of the Irish Aviation Authority, such as weather or congestion in European airspace, also contribute to flight delays,” said the spokeswoman.
The IAA said it will not be operating the radar system at full capacity for several weeks until a safety revalidation is carried out.
