Problems at Swanwick?
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Agree entirely with Midland 331. If someone is stating that it is a telephone line issue, with no critical back up for an ATC system, then god help us.
Like good ole RBS, ' systemic 'systems' failures, aka, we have no cash
Like good ole RBS, ' systemic 'systems' failures, aka, we have no cash
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Safety has not been compromised at any time.
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Nothing to do with Scottish mil task being transferred to Swanwick last night?
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The trick is .....
The trick is to test software changes thoroughly OFFLINE before loading changes ONLINE ! IF that is the problem ....
Feel for my colleagues in UK .... and for the SLF in their cocoons waiting for Slot times !
Hope you get it sorted soon - whatever the problem
Feel for my colleagues in UK .... and for the SLF in their cocoons waiting for Slot times !
Hope you get it sorted soon - whatever the problem
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I do not know the full extent of the cause, but reading both the NATS release and the Eurocontrol CFMU release, the problem looks to be that the plasma touchscreen telephone system is not configuring correctly so new positions cannot be opened to split the sectors. There is no possible redundancy/back up system for a system failure of this kind.
Una, London area control do not telephone the next sector to coordinate, it is all done electronically and the telephones used for amendments or to pass other details. The only exception to this is that not every other centre/airfield are connected to the electronic coordination system.
Una, London area control do not telephone the next sector to coordinate, it is all done electronically and the telephones used for amendments or to pass other details. The only exception to this is that not every other centre/airfield are connected to the electronic coordination system.
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NAROBS
I really hope your are wrong here !
It's probably confidential how the workload is split & configured among the "servers" and how they are sub netted, but a detailed explanation (not a contradiction of my earlier post) should be forthcoming to allay the justified concerns of the direct customers of the services provided, and of course the flying customers too.
It's probably confidential how the workload is split & configured among the "servers" and how they are sub netted, but a detailed explanation (not a contradiction of my earlier post) should be forthcoming to allay the justified concerns of the direct customers of the services provided, and of course the flying customers too.
Avoid imitations
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Will it work OK as soon as it gets dark again?
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ShyTorque
I've had systems behave just like this too - Still wondering what happened ? - probably a Rogue Ethernet card. The bigger the problem the dafter the cause.
Last edited by Guest 112233; 7th Dec 2013 at 13:51.
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It is surprising how small items that have been over looked, can completely bring a computer system to its knees. Back in the late 1960,s telegraph systems were stating to be automated, by telecoms companies as well as in private ones (BA and Shell being some of the first).
The start of a message started with the code ZCZC and the ended with NNNN, a problem arose one day when someone put in a message …. (Four full stops). Full stop on a teleprinter is the uppercase of N, thus the computer considered the four full stops as the end of message code. As the code for N and full stop are the same (Space, Space, Mark, Mark, Space, if I have got it right after 40 years). So it stopped the transmission and sent an error message to the engineers, as it could not understand were the ZCZC for the next message was.
The answer was to instruct teleprinter operators to insert between each full stop, the figure shift code for upper case. Therefor the computer would not think it was seeing Four N’s on the trot and the problem was solved.
Now some of you will know why you had ZCZC and NNNN on your telegrams.
The start of a message started with the code ZCZC and the ended with NNNN, a problem arose one day when someone put in a message …. (Four full stops). Full stop on a teleprinter is the uppercase of N, thus the computer considered the four full stops as the end of message code. As the code for N and full stop are the same (Space, Space, Mark, Mark, Space, if I have got it right after 40 years). So it stopped the transmission and sent an error message to the engineers, as it could not understand were the ZCZC for the next message was.
The answer was to instruct teleprinter operators to insert between each full stop, the figure shift code for upper case. Therefor the computer would not think it was seeing Four N’s on the trot and the problem was solved.
Now some of you will know why you had ZCZC and NNNN on your telegrams.
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Civil Aviation computers are pretty switched on. One particular airline always asked for a wheelchar to meet the aircraft... so, one day, someone fed into the computer system "<airline> requests a wheelchair". The computer was on the ball and respeonded: "Invalid message"
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Dear Mr Diamond
The answer was in the second post on this thread... which as you missed it, said the following....
AC871 from Paris to Montreal departing towards Norway rather than Ireland as I write this, I was wondering why.
Delays are very high
RRP' s are send out to avoid EGTT where possible. Flight level cappings, in coordination with UK FMP, are perfomed to reduce delay for flights that can fly lower
RRP' s are send out to avoid EGTT where possible. Flight level cappings, in coordination with UK FMP, are perfomed to reduce delay for flights that can fly lower
More than just an ATCO
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From the Guardian,
That's what you get for doing it on the cheap. No autonomous back-up system?
Air traffic grounded by telephone fault at £623m hi-tech control centre
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What happened to the 'Two Centre' strategy?
As a retired ATC Engineer, could I ask what happened (and when) to the two centre strategy? i.e. in the event of a catastrophic failure in Swanwick, ScOACC/Atlantic House in Prestwick could keep everything moving. 
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What are you on about for starters?
Secondly, the airspace can't just be handed over to another centre as there's no controllers there that would be valid to work the airspace.
Thirdly, West Drayton doesn't exist anymore so it would be somewhat difficult for them to do it from there
Secondly, the airspace can't just be handed over to another centre as there's no controllers there that would be valid to work the airspace.
Thirdly, West Drayton doesn't exist anymore so it would be somewhat difficult for them to do it from there