Latest air traffic glitch involved old subsystem from another manufacturer, CAD clarifies
Department also refutes claims that Dubai has abandoned use of Electronic Flight Strips
The Civil Aviation Department has hit back at criticism against its new air traffic control system, clarifying that the subsystem that saw a glitch on Sunday was not developed by the same manufacturer embroiled in a growing controversy.
On Sunday, the Tower Electronic Flight Strips (TEFS) subsystem, which provides flight plan data for departure and arrival flights to air traffic control officers, encountered issues “temporarily and intermittently”.
The problem was fixed about one and a half hours later. The CAD admitted that flight departures were temporarily suspended, but did not state how long the suspension lasted.
This was the latest in a series incidents that have called into question the reliability of the new HK$1.56 billion Auto Trac III system, developed by US-based manufacturer Raytheon.
In a statement released in the early hours of Tuesday, the CAD clarified that the TEFS system has been in place since 2012, when the old air traffic control system was still in use. The manufacturer was Frequentis, not Raytheon.