The sophisticated air traffic management system at the IGI Airport, which was operationalised in March, crashed this evening disrupting flight movements for almost 30 minutes.
Incoming and outgoing flights were disrupted between 5.50 p.m and 6.20 p.m. as the Autotrac-III system crashed, resulting in the air traffic control (ATC) screens going blank, airport sources said.
However, the ATC officials quickly switched over to the earlier system — Autotrac-II — to restore air traffic, the sources said.
This is the third time this year that the air traffic management system at the airport has collapsed. The system had crashed twice in January when U.S. company Raytheon’s Autotrac-III system was being tested for installation.
The sources said no incoming flight was diverted to any other airport but they were made to hover over the Delhi airspace till the Autotrac-II system was made operational.
An Airports Authority of India spokesperson said the two Autotrac systems were working simultaneously. “There were some problems in Autotrac-III for a few minutes. There was no disruption to any flight in any way,” the spokesperson said.
