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SCMP Reporter

The airport opening was a 'very lucky' escape and the chaos could have been much worse, it was claimed yesterday.

 On the 56th and final day of testimony at the Commission of Inquiry on the New Airport, experts said contingency measures for the Flight Information Display System (FIDS) were lax.

 The commission heard the standby system was available on July 6 but had 'no chance' of being used when the main system went down because airlines were not familiar with it.

 Professor Vincent Shen, of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and Dr Ulrich Kipper of Frankfurt Airport, said it was lucky the main system had been quickly rebooted on the day or a complete breakdown might have occurred.

 Responding to questions from commission counsel Benjamin Yu SC, Professor Shen said there had been no guarantee the system would work on opening day, even with experts standing by to assist.

 Mr Yu: 'So they were actually very lucky [things were not worse]?'  Professor Shen: 'Yes, FIDS crashed, you could not start up the standby FIDS, there were not enough white boards . . .'.

 Airport Authority officials have testified that the standby system had been tested on June 30 and all airlines had been invited to participate. The same information was reported to the Airport Development Steering Committee, chaired by Chief Secretary for Administration Anson Chan Fang On-sang.

 But airlines told the commission they had no idea how to use the system and had never been invited to participate in its testing.

 The commission heard training was needed on both systems as they were 'very different', with the simpler back-up system requiring a lot more manual input.

 The $20 million standby system took less than three months to develop, compared to the $300 million main system, which took three years to put together.

 Mr Justice Woo Kwok-hing adjourned proceedings until December 30, when counsel will exchange sub missions. He has heard more than 300 hours of oral evidence.



Chaos could have been much worse, expert claims