Crude axing of two optic fibre cables near Birati in north Kolkata downed a newly-installed hi-tech air traffic service, blanked out radar surveillance across eastern India and left thousands of passengers vulnerable for 13 hours as planes travelled through communication black holes in the sky. Kolkata airport handles 300 flights daily and its air traffic control (ATC) also has to monitor 700-800 overflying aircraft every day.
State-owned telecom service provider BSNL, which carries data from radars and other surveillance gadgets to the airport, cried sabotage and hinted at foul play by a private operator. But sources said the culprit could well be a labourer planting bamboo poles for Kali Puja pandals. The Airports Authority of India (AAI), which believed its integrated radar system was foolproof, now has a problem on its hands as the link failure exposed its vulnerability.
The regular night shift at the Kolkata ATC turned into a pressure-cooker situation after data from six radar stations and eight automatic dependant surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) units disappeared suddenly at 10.49pm on Friday. Only two patches in the sky, each of 350 nautical mile radius around Kolkata and Behrampore, remained under radar surveillance.
After an initial bout of panic, controllers fell back on the antiquated yet time-tested radio communication with pilots to locate their position and flight speed. Fears of a possible crash or collision ebbed as calls to other stations revealed the radars were working fine. Engineers then zeroed in on the BSNL modem. The signal was gone, pointing to a link failure.
What added to the problem was disruption in telecom services as well. Controllers had to use cellphones to communicate with Dhaka, Yangon, Chennai and neighbouring ATCs to hand over planes flying into these regions from Kolkata and vice-versa.
No comments:
Post a Comment