Problems at Swanwick
 

Problems at Swanwick this morning again, after the shutdown last night. Long delays expected. Richard Everitt apologises on Radio 4.
Oh well, at least it was delayed from last night!

More details please.

Oh well, another busy afternoon looms. Saves us getting bored.. and keeps us out of that damned hot sun!

May be more "interesting" than you think, HD. My Wx forecast says lots of Cbs later... have fun ;)

Best rgds
BEX

Up to 4 hour delays into some airports in the south - LGW/LHR.
I believe LCY is closed to inbounds at the moment, can anyone confirm?
BRAL ops on the ball for a change, filing lower levels and avoiding some slots.

Have fun in the SE this afternoon chaps!

Feel sorry for the SLF stuck in the terminals with only overpriced tea/coffee and stale sandwiches for company!:p

With the operation stuck in the TDU, and daytime staff numbers it could be that for the first time Swanwick is actually overstaffed!:eek:

The BBC have picked up on the fact that the DD&C performed last night should have happened on Wednesday.

They are also saying that it was delayed until last night due to the number of extra flights connected with the European Controllers Cup..... (I wish!), no, sorry, I mean the European Cup Final.

No mention of the real reason for the delay until Thursday night, which was not enough staff at Swanwick. As it was several sectors were closed on Wednesday night.

Until VERY late in the day, Swanwick management were INSISTING that the DD&C go ahead on Wednesday.

As to todays problem. I wonder when they discovered it wasn't possible to "spilt" the sectors? Not a nice feeling when the traffic is relentlessly coming off the Ocean and you're getting buried.

Getting Swanwick back up will be a challenge. Will a complete shutdown (of Swanwick) be required before rebooting the whole thing, a bit like DD&C in reverse? If so when? A tough decision.

All this makes me very sad.

Rgds BEX

Well, something's up and running again -- loads of delays have just melted away completely. I was watching an ETD on a flight from EDI -- nominally 20:15, it was at 00:16 for most of the morning. Then it went back to 22: something, and now it's back on schedule.

How good are those rollback procedures?

R

Calling all controllers,I got a rubbish roster this afternoon,SOU to DUB,DUB to SOU,SOU to EDI,EDI to SOU then SOU to IOM,any help in actually getting any of the above completed before midnight would br great,yea and the wx looks rubbish too!!

Well, at least it will all be sorted by the summer(?)
Not noticed anyone mention the mysterious workstation freezes that happened a while back- as far as i know systems never found out what happened they just cured themselves.....
You're right Bex it IS sad (especially when we all expected this)

N H, suggest you pack plenty of reading material and extra sarnies. Speak to you this afternoon, evening and probably night...

Does any body out there know if the operation is SWIMMING or fully electronic but in the TDU?

If the former then I suspect that the only way back, because of NAS link problems, is for the airspace to become very empty before an attempted reboot.

Z

No, I think they came out of the TDU after the DD&C, went electronic and THEN when it came time to split for the morning, they couldn't OPEN SECTORS.

BEX

P.S. The BBC is reporting the system now fixed, but LONG delays are inevitable

Thanks Bex, that should mean a rapid return to normal once they can split again. Unfortunately the back log will take a while to clear.

If any SLF is reading this thread please accept the Swanwick ATCO's and ATSA's apologies for any inconvenience which is not of their making. NATS management were warned that this sort of thing could happen and will continue to happen for the forseeable future.

Z

ok, what's an "SLF"?

SLF=Self Loading Freight..... err.. Passengers

BEX

I was in for the DD&C last night and it all went OK, no problems at all! Bandboxed back in Ops at 0130Z and checked out all the Workstations, no problems. Left the control staff to it, we were off home by 2Z. Don't know why the day watch appeared to be unable to split out, possible bug in the software drop?

"possible bug in the software drop" Poosible. Wouldn't be the first time and won't be the last, either.

The NAS AIRAC update went perfectly, no probs with the NASSFS link either, NAS shutdown between 0009 and 0039 and the beast arose from its slumbers first time.

Possible instability with Swanwick software drop? Did a rogue flight plan do some damage within the workstation token ring?

Condolences to the morning watch (Air Traffic AND Tels) and passengers involved.

Token ring, now there's an expression I haven't heard for a long time!

What's it used for at Swanwick?

Absolute pain of a morning shift, loads of flight plans coming out but few getting airborne, London City fills up, lots of level capping and bizarre reroutes to try & avoid NERC sectors, then Pease radar has a wobble, saturation of SSRs due to the vast number of a/c still on the ground at EGLL, NERC preparing to go to SwIMM mode, was talk of going to SwIMM at 3pm local.

As usual, operational staff at the coal face kept the show running but we're all getting a bit fed up of this now. Pax, airlines & NATS own staff are being let down bigstyle every time these problems occur, I dread to think the reputation NATS is getting with the flying public.