New Delhi: The Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI) at Delhi was hit badly on Friday morning after a big technical snag affected the Air Traffic Control (ATC) system, disrupting the flight operations in the airport. Over 100 flights were postponed because the flight plans had to be handled manually by the controllers. According to a report published by News18, early signs indicate that the break in the Automatic Message Switching System (AMSS) that takes care of ATC data may have been the result of a malware attack.
Governments stated that technical teams have been working on restoring the system and normalising operations as fast as possible. The Airports Authority of India (AAI) announced that the process of flight operations in the IGI Airport is currently done manually, and that is the reason behind the delays in flights in various airlines. Customers have been encouraged to maintain contact with their respective airlines in order to get updated in real time.
Technical glitch hits air traffic control system
AAI officials said that the AMSS failure had upset automatic flight plan transmission, and air traffic controllers had to use manual processing since Thursday evening. The system plays a significant role in handling daily flight movements of more than 1,500 in India, which is the busiest airport. The officials reported that all the stakeholders, which include Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), are making arrangements to remedy the problem as soon as possible.
An announcement made by AAI about X stated that flight plans are being done manually by controllers, and therefore there were slight delays. Technical teams are striving to get the system back at the earliest.
Airlines issue travel advisories
Air India and SpiceJet, among a number of airlines, issued warnings on the likelihood of delays and increased waiting time. Air India argued that the technical problem was affecting the flight operations of all airlines and that the failure was not its fault. SpiceJet also encouraged the passengers to frequently check the status of their flights on its webpage.
A video uploaded by news agency ANI captured the formation of long queues outside Terminal 3, with passengers waiting to know what was happening. The airport authority has also apologised that it caused inconvenience and promised to work 24 hours to bring normalcy.