Severe delays in Dublin airport after radar malfunction
Flights in and out of Dublin Airport have been severely disrupted this afternoon following a serious malfunction of the airport's radar system.
Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) spokeswoman Lilian Cassin said that the system had to be completely shut down and would not be operational until at least 3pm.
She described the situation as "fluid" and said it was possible that it would take considerably longer before the flights were allowed take off or land at the airport.
Dublin Airport spokeswoman Siobhan Moore said a small number of flights were departing, "albeit on a limited basis“
"Passengers should contact their airline before arriving at the airport”, she said.
“We have had our crisis communications meeting and we're monitoring the situation and putting a contingency plan in place." The plan includes liasing with airlines, finding out what provisions have been made for passengers on cancelled flights, reuniting them with their bags and rebooking them, she added.
Ms Moore said airport authorities were setting up corral systems to keep the free-flow of people in the terminal building.
There have now been five radar malfunctions of the airport’s air traffic management system over the last five weeks and experts examining it are unable to locate the problem, the Irish Aviation Authority said.
Early this afternoon flights into the airport were limited to 14 per hour, 11 less than the normal maximum limit of 25 but the system was subsequently declared unstable and a decision was taken to shut the system down entirely.
"The system is unstable and we did not have confidence in it so in the interests of passenger safety we have taken the decision to shut it down entirely," an IAA spokeswoman told The Irish Times.
“When the fault happened a second time at 1.30pm, we didn’t have the confidence to continue,” she said.
“We very much regret the inconvenience to passengers but this action must be taken for safety reasons,” she said.
“It’s a French system and team on French engineers are in Dublin on site for last few days. One element has been outsourced to Hewlett Packard.
“They haven’t been able to pinpoint what the problem is so far but it is specific to Dublin.” Ms Cassan said restrictions may be in place for a number of days while the air traffic system is examined.
comunicato Ryanair:
Ryanair were advised at 1400hrs by the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) that due to the Radar Failure at Dublin Airport all flights have been grounded and are being allowed to depart one every five minutes, which will give rise to departure slot delays of up to 5 hours for aircraft which are presently waiting to depart from Dublin. We have been advised that the IAA have shut down the Dublin Radar computer and hope to start it up again in 15minutes. Whether this procedure is successful or not is unknown, but we are concerned that the IAA Radar has been giving problems and causing substantial delays for a number of days now.
These unknown but lengthy delays at Dublin Airport have forced 5 inbound Ryanair aircraft to divert, 4 to Shannon and 1 to Belfast. This computer failure will give rise to substantial knock-on delays, and crews will go out of hours later this afternoon.
On behalf of the IAA, Ryanair sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused by these flights disruptions.
09/07/2008
Flight No. Departure Airport Arrival Airport
FR154 DUBLIN LEEDSBRADFORD
FR155 LEEDSBRADFORD DUBLIN
FR554 DUBLIN MANCHESTER
FR555 MANCHESTER DUBLIN
FR924 DUBLIN BLACKPOOL
FR925 BLACKPOOL DUBLIN
FR666 DUBLIN BIRMINGHAM
FR667 BIRMINHAM DUBLIN
FR333 DUBLIN LUTON
FR334 LUTON DUBLIN
Flights in and out of Dublin Airport have been severely disrupted this afternoon following a serious malfunction of the airport's radar system.
Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) spokeswoman Lilian Cassin said that the system had to be completely shut down and would not be operational until at least 3pm.
She described the situation as "fluid" and said it was possible that it would take considerably longer before the flights were allowed take off or land at the airport.
Dublin Airport spokeswoman Siobhan Moore said a small number of flights were departing, "albeit on a limited basis“
"Passengers should contact their airline before arriving at the airport”, she said.
“We have had our crisis communications meeting and we're monitoring the situation and putting a contingency plan in place." The plan includes liasing with airlines, finding out what provisions have been made for passengers on cancelled flights, reuniting them with their bags and rebooking them, she added.
Ms Moore said airport authorities were setting up corral systems to keep the free-flow of people in the terminal building.
There have now been five radar malfunctions of the airport’s air traffic management system over the last five weeks and experts examining it are unable to locate the problem, the Irish Aviation Authority said.
Early this afternoon flights into the airport were limited to 14 per hour, 11 less than the normal maximum limit of 25 but the system was subsequently declared unstable and a decision was taken to shut the system down entirely.
"The system is unstable and we did not have confidence in it so in the interests of passenger safety we have taken the decision to shut it down entirely," an IAA spokeswoman told The Irish Times.
“When the fault happened a second time at 1.30pm, we didn’t have the confidence to continue,” she said.
“We very much regret the inconvenience to passengers but this action must be taken for safety reasons,” she said.
“It’s a French system and team on French engineers are in Dublin on site for last few days. One element has been outsourced to Hewlett Packard.
“They haven’t been able to pinpoint what the problem is so far but it is specific to Dublin.” Ms Cassan said restrictions may be in place for a number of days while the air traffic system is examined.
comunicato Ryanair:
Ryanair were advised at 1400hrs by the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) that due to the Radar Failure at Dublin Airport all flights have been grounded and are being allowed to depart one every five minutes, which will give rise to departure slot delays of up to 5 hours for aircraft which are presently waiting to depart from Dublin. We have been advised that the IAA have shut down the Dublin Radar computer and hope to start it up again in 15minutes. Whether this procedure is successful or not is unknown, but we are concerned that the IAA Radar has been giving problems and causing substantial delays for a number of days now.
These unknown but lengthy delays at Dublin Airport have forced 5 inbound Ryanair aircraft to divert, 4 to Shannon and 1 to Belfast. This computer failure will give rise to substantial knock-on delays, and crews will go out of hours later this afternoon.
On behalf of the IAA, Ryanair sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused by these flights disruptions.
09/07/2008
Flight No. Departure Airport Arrival Airport
FR154 DUBLIN LEEDSBRADFORD
FR155 LEEDSBRADFORD DUBLIN
FR554 DUBLIN MANCHESTER
FR555 MANCHESTER DUBLIN
FR924 DUBLIN BLACKPOOL
FR925 BLACKPOOL DUBLIN
FR666 DUBLIN BIRMINGHAM
FR667 BIRMINHAM DUBLIN
FR333 DUBLIN LUTON
FR334 LUTON DUBLIN
