Radar screens at IGI airport ATC go blank

Radar screens at the Air Traffic Control tower at the IGIAirport in New Delhi went blank on Friday following power failure caused by accidental switching off a miniature circuit breaker (MCB) by a worker carrying out an electrical job in ATC, hitting flight operations.

Screens of the Air Traffic Control Officers (ATCOs) went blank at 12.20 pm when power supply was disrupted as a worker fixing an electrical fitting accidentally switched off an MCB switch that was fixed for the ATC operators' screen, sources said.

Though the standby power took over the system within seconds, it took over 45 minutes to reboot the entire consoles and restore the operations fully, they said.

The operations were partially affected as ATCOs regulated the departures in a controlled way while there was no disruption in incoming flights, they said, adding since the traffic was low, it did not pose any major problem.

The ATCOs had to handle the flight manually initially.

The IGI airport is run by Delhi International Airports Limited but the operations at the ATC tower are under the control of the Airports Authority of India, the country's government-owned airport operator.

Asked about it, AAI spokesperson G S Bawa said that at around 12.21 pm there was power failure but standby power took over, which worked for around 10 minutes till 12.31 pm.

 After this, the power was restored and there was no disruption.

"The ATC was allowing departures in a controlled manner while there was no disruption in flights arriving here," he said.