It has been confirmed that a faulty computer network card was behind the breakdown of the €100 million radar system at Dublin Airport last week, resulting in massive disruption and flight delays.
Thales ATM, the air traffic management company that developed the hardware, said it was the first time such an incident has happened in any of 10 centres worldwide with some 500,000 hours of flight time between them.
The company presented its report on the breakdown to the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) yesterday, the authority confirmed today.
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 IAA said it has installed further computer monitoring and may boost its back-up system to prevent a repeat of last week’s problems.
“The IAA is continuously monitoring the system performance. As with all safety critical systems however, the system will now have to be re-validated by the Safety Regulation Division, a process that could take a number of weeks,” a spokeswoman said.
It said that for safety reasons it will not operate the system to its limit until that revalidation process is complete.
“Over the coming weeks, the IAA expects to slowly add capacity and smooth out the peak-time issues.”
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 was 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 the IAA.
“Thales ATM also confirmed that the cause of the malfunction was the same for previous malfunctions which had occurred since June 2nd.
It was the first time such an incident had occurred in the Thales system, which is in operation in 10 similar air traffic control centres worldwide with over 500,000 flight hours (50 years) between them, the company said.
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 IAA spokeswoman.
Additional reporting: PA