An air traffic control glitch that affected trans-Tasman flights from New Zealand is now the focus of investigation.
Airservices Australia referred News Cop to Airways New Zealand, who manage the Oceanic flight space that takes in New Zealand.
In a statement released on Saturday, Airways chief executive James Young says that at 4:30pm (2:30pm AEST), they experienced “a disruption” in their main air traffic control system and they switched to a back-up system.
(He later told NZ media that there had been a failure in the cross-system transfer of flight information data.)
“During this time, flight plans for the Tasman sector were unable to be processed through the system, causing delays.”
He says the main system was restored at 5:05pm (3:05pm) and normal operations had resumed by 5:30pm (3:30pm).
“A full technical review is now under way,” Young says.
An Airways spokesperson explained to News Cop that a flight plan in the system is essential to air traffic controllers keeping aircraft safely separated in the air.
“Flights already in Oceanic airspace were able to continue as their flight paths were already loaded, allowing controllers to manage their paths safely,” she said.
“When we switched to our backup system, there was a period when new flight paths could not be processed.
“This meant aircraft still flying in our domestic airspace sectors were held in the air and those on the ground did not depart.”
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AIR TRAFFIC GLITCH AFFECTS MID-AIR FLIGHTS
Young said five flights were held in the air; three of them returned to New Zealand after 40 minutes in a holding pattern. The other two flights resumed course to their destination.
Flight take-offs were also delayed in Australia and New Zealand during this time, Airways said.
One NZ Facebook post says a Brisbane-bound flight from Wellington was among the flights that had to turn around.
The FlightRadar24 app showed a Jetstar flight from Christchurch to Gold Coast and a Qantas service from Christchurch to Sydney were turned back.
A second Facebook report said a Virgin Queenstown-Brisbane flight was also turned back.
NZ aviation experts have told NZ media that the IT failure was a very rare occurrence.
According to Airways, New Zealand’s oceanic airspace covers a large area across the Pacific Ocean and Tasman Sea.
Airways uses its air traffic control system to manage aircraft in New Zealand using a network of 19 control towers.
WHO ARE AIRWAYS NZ? Click here to link through to their website.
