EGLL problems
 

Whats up at Heathrow currently?
Tower asking all aircraft to shut down engines until further notice and mega delays on departures.
Is it single runway ops or is the wind really that bad currently?

Anyone know whats up?

Futher to this, I am told that Swanwick Computers have failed ...!!! again

From CFMU

THE UK NATIONAL AIR TRAFFIC COMPUTER SYSTEM HAS SUFFERED A
FAILURE.THIS MEANS THAT UNTIL THE SYSTEM RECOVERS, AREA CONTROL
UNITS IN THE LONDON AND SCOTTISH FIR/UIRS WILL BE OPERATING AT
REDUCED CAPACITIES.
.
DEPARTURES PLANNED TO ENTER THE LONDON FIR/UIR HAVE BEEN
TEMPORARILY STOPPED.
.
FURTHER INFORMATION WILL BE TRANSMITTED BY THE CFMU FMD AS THE
SITUATION DEVELOPS.
.
ISSUED ON BEHALF OF LONDON FMP.
.
FMD BRUSSELS

BA are going to need this like a hole in h head.....

Nats statement

Interruption to Air Traffic Control Service (Updated 11:00)

NATS’ Flight Data Processing (FDP) system at West Drayton, which developed a fault at 09.30 this morning was restored to full operations by 09.50. The restrictions that had been imposed on flights - and which led to delays for some travellers – have all now been lifted and our controllers are working with airports and airlines to clear the backlog and restore the schedules.

Throughout the period NATS controllers were able to operate normally using radar and radio systems which were unaffected.

NATS emphasises that safety has not been compromised and regrets any inconvenience caused.

Regrettably, we also received news that the Maastricht air traffic control centre suffered a service interruption from 10.00 UK time this morning. We have no reason to believe that the failures are connected, but this inevitably will lead to further travel delays on flights to and from some parts of Europe. We believe that Maastricht Centre is also now fully operational.

Ian Hall, NATS’ Director Operations said: “We sincerely apologise to those who have been inconvenienced this morning. We did everything we could to restore the full ATC service as quickly as possible and minimise the delays and impact on the day’s schedules.

He added: “A new FDP system sits at the heart of our £1 billion modernisation programme. It will enable us to deliver the robust service our customers expect.”

Not to mention delays. Which destination is that?

Jerricho

NATS will add up all the delays divide by another number and conclude that it only caused an average delay (NATS Attributable) of 9.64secs....

Which is fine and dandy and well en-route to Destination. Time for another pat on the back and lunch with Boss :D

The Truth, the Whole Truth and Nothing But The Truth

Makes me happy to see I'm not the only cynical person round here ;) :ok:

Ian Hall added “A new FDP system sits at the heart of our £1 billion modernisation programme. It will enable us to deliver the robust service our customers expect.”

Ask him when its due in service!! So until thats in customers aren't getting the service they should expect?

ALLDAYDELI

Get your facts right please. The "Swanwick Computers" did not fail. There was a problem with the FDP computer at West Drayton. This serves the whole country including Scotland.

There is a programme to replace the systems in use and Ian Hall is correct in saying FDP is at the heart of the new systems. A little misleading because the earliest date for the replacement of NAS in LACC airspace is 2012. The ScACC one is earlier - about 2008.

If anyone believes that replacing the FDP system is all that matters is sadly mistaken. There will be failures of any system (Maastricht had one this morning and their system is quite new) which will cause problems. What needs to be said is that the Watches on duty all over the UK this morning did a superb job, safety was never compromised and all was back to normal as quickly as possible.

NATS staff are moving a record number of aeroplanes (up 7.5% in June and 6.9% in July). Will people please stop sniping.

A I :\

A I, Dont shoot the messenger. That old adage.
Enough said

AI, people are sniping the sector drivers.

It's the support from the systems the worker bees receive that draws the attention.

Jerricho.

I'm not quite sure what you mean. If by sector drivers you mean the ATCO's and ATSA's on console then I wasn't aware of any sniping in their direction.

ALLDAYDELI

I wasn't shooting you! All I tried to do was put the record straight. Swanwick did not fail. One of the systems supporting the whole UK ATC operation failed for a short time, the proper fallbacks were implemented and all was well. Some of us are just a little bit fed up when ill informed people make statements which are not true. If you had simply asked the question about delays at Heathrow then that would have been fine. You implied that you knew the answer and that things were not OK at Swanwick. That is my point.

A I

2012 for your FDP computer replacement, WOW I thought we were slow <G>... If they don't cut anymore money or run into any more issues, we are supposed to start replacing the computers at all 20 centers starting in 2009 and will probably be finished in 2010. Interesting to see what the differences are in systems.

regards

Scott

Hi Scott,

We are going to replace the FDP computers sooner than that!! NAS is moving to Swanwick in 2007 so the hardware will be new. NATS is in collaboration with SATCA (Spain) who will supply a new system (including a new FDP system) for Scotland which should be in operation in 2008. SATCA will also supply the system to replace Swanwick and that is scheduled for 2011/2012. We will be running NAS until then.

A I

AENA are the Spanish ANSP that NATS are working with (and DFS - the Jerries) to develop SACTA - the air traffic control system.

All three are working with INDRA - a Spanish IT company to develop a new FDP system (nicknamed ITEC).

SACTA will run whether ITEC is available or not, although I believe ITEC is supposed to be available before SACTA at Swanwick

VL

NAS is the most modern FDP system in Europe, having been recently completely rewritten. The move to Swanwick puts it on new hardware but its the same hardware, so no upgrade.

All systems will fail at some point, it is impossible to expect a computer system to never fail. You just need to have sufficiently robust fallbacks and procedures in place to cover those very rare failures.

Don't hold your breath for ITEC or any other replacement FDP system in the UK anytime soon. Replacement is not as simple as the high heid yins were led to believe and they've now had a short sharp reality check which is still reverberating around :p

BD

If it's the most modern (and by implication, advanced) in Europe .. God help us !! :p

PPRuNe Radar
 

Don't worry about the management person's input, this is a rumour network after all: I mean why would the world's best system need to be shut down once a week? If NATS are supposed to be buying Off The Shelf kit why is the "super" Spanish system being completely re-jigged...perhaps a major downgrade to make it compatible with and as non user friendly as the current system?
No problem on my sector this morning, I used my paper strips and we kept the metal moving......Ah that reliable old fallback...the human element!

Hhhhmmmm, basic lack of understanding being shown as to what NAS actually is and what it does ;) Please feel free to throw rocks but I suggest that first you actually take the trouble to understand what the function of NAS is ;)

055166k
All respect to the staff who kept the traffic moving, thats always going to be how things are :D Not sure what your comments are about re-jigging the Spanish system though, are you talking about CASPIAN as opposed to any FDP system?
BTW I'm not management nor a management lackie ;)

BD

:suspect: .... :mad:

Well the flight I was supoposed to be on yesterday from southampton to bordeaux was delayed by over 4 1/2 hours......initially due to the computer thingy affecting previous inbound then due to that delay crew were out of hours etc. etc......:{