Radar snag at Delhi’s swanky T3

New Delhi, 28 July: High-tech radars that guide planes in and out of airports crashed today at the capital’s new glass-and-steel T3 terminal, disrupting flights for 20 minutes before air traffic controllers switched to an earlier system.

The snag hit on a day the swanky terminal, the world’s second-largest, started full commercial operations, but airport sources said there was no risk to planes landing or taking off.

“Five outgoing flights were delayed as an advanced software which runs the new radar system developed a glitch,” said a spokesperson for Delhi International Airport Ltd.

Some 53 international airlines operate out of Delhi and a normal day sees 240-250 flights coming in or taking off.

This was the third time this year that the new Autotrac-III system, bought from US-based radar specialists Raytheon, had crashed. The earlier glitches had occurred while the system was being tested.

The last two “situations” were on 14 and 26 January, forcing the control tower to switch to “manual procedure”, but not before operations had been affected for over an hour.

Officials said things were going smoothly when the Autotrac-III system, which runs the terminal’s radars, developed the glitch at 5.50pm.

Incoming flights were then asked to hover over Delhi’s airspace till the Autotrac-II system was activated. “The ATC computer system Autotrac-III, which is under validation trials at the airport, developed technical snags. Autotrac-II, which was maintained as a standby was used by the ATC,” V.P. Agrawal, chairman, Airports Authority of India, said.

ATC officials said despite the radar glitch, there was no risk to aircraft flying in or out. All planes flying into India, they explained, are required to have their own onboard traffic collision avoidance system, which warns about the presence of another aircraft in the vicinity.

The T3 terminal, which has a capacity to handle 34 million passengers a year, saw flights coming in since last week but was to start full-scale operations today with the closure of an older international terminal.

With 78 aerobridges, 63 elevators, 35 escalators and 92 automatic walkways, the $2.7-billion new terminal was built to coincide with the hosting of a showpiece event — the 3-14 October Commonwealth Games.

Although Raytheon is rated as one of the top radar systems globally, many airports have reported initial glitches with software bought from the US company.

“Advanced systems like this have been known to develop snags,” said former Indian Airlines director Robin Pathak. “It was good a back-up was available... otherwise manual radar operations would have had to be brought in.”

Manual procedures basically mean ATCs have to manually calculate flight paths and distances between aircraft. Advanced systems like Autotrac do that through a software, making the job of air traffic controller easier.


The Telegraph