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The Latest News From the IAA

Irish Aviation Authority Update on Technical Issue 11:30 - October 4

04 Oct 2018

The IAA has confirmed that following a thorough investigation of a technical issue on our primary Air Traffic Control (ATC) system in Ballycasey, County Clare, (which occurred on Tuesday the 2nd of October) the issue has been identified and isolated.

The issue was an irregular software occurrence.

Over the course of last night (3rd – 4th October) the IAA transferred service back to its primary system, which has been restored to full capacity.  The IAA continues to provide a full service to airlines and passengers.

Technical experts and the system manufacturer worked tirelessly to identify the issue, research, isolate and to resolve the matter.

When this was completed, a comprehensive testing and safety analysis was carried out to ensure that the system was fit to return to operations.  The outcome of this was positive and accordingly operations were transferred back to the primary ATC system last night.

When the technical issue occurred on Tuesday evening, we are satisfied that the back-up system and contingency planning worked as required.  This ensured that we restored full service in a safe and timely manner and disruption to aircraft was minimal.

The IAA continues to invest in its state-of-the-art air traffic management system and in the development of our staff, to deliver a world-class service to our airline customers.

We wish to clarify some issues reported in some media outlets:

  • The technical issue which occurred was not a radar issue.Full radar coverage was maintained at all times.
  • The technical issue involved a module on our ATC system which affected the performance of this system.The IAA took the decision to move to its back-up systems in order to maintain a full and safe service to aircraft.
  • The IAA must follow a regulatory procedure when transferring to the back-up system.This procedure ensures safety of operations; however it necessitated the restrictions on traffic flow which occurred on Tuesday evening.
  • The back-up system is a full replica of the IAA’s main ATC system.This allowed the IAA to provide a full and normal, safe ATC service once transfer to this system was completed.

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