Computer glitch causes delays at UK & US airports

[angelburst29]

Must be something in the air-waves? Major computer IT glitches reported at Airports in the U.K. and the U.S. especially in the California area. Outages in communications with AT&T and Verizon services were also reported in some California areas including Philadelphia, Brooklyn, and New York.


Computer glitch causes delays at airports
_http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-27225649

April 30, 2014 - Passengers are experiencing disruption at a number of UK airports and sea ports after an IT glitch, the Home Office has said.

Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted and Birmingham are among the airports which have seen lengthy queues forming after a fault on UK Border Force computers.

All sea ports where passport checks are carried out, such as Dover and Southampton, are also affected.

The Home Office said security remained a "priority".

The delays are said to be having a particular impact on non-EU passengers, and extra staff have been called in to try to reduce the queuing time.


'Fights' As IT Glitch Sparks Long Airport Queues
_http://www.lbc.co.uk/fights-as-it-glitch-sparks-long-airport-queues-89712

Fights among airport passengers have been reported after long queues formed at passport control desks due to IT problems.

A fault affecting UK Border Force computers on Wednesday afternoon led to travel disruption and extra staff have been brought in to try to reduce the lengthy lines.

Heathrow, Gatwick, Birmingham and Manchester are among the airports across the country that were hit.

The problem is mostly affecting those trying to enter the country and is having a particular impact on non-EU airline customers.

The scuffles apparently broke out over accusations of queue jumping.


Computer issues at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)
_http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/30/travel/lax-ground-stop/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

April 30, 2014 - (CNN) -- Computer issues at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) prompted a temporary ground stop Wednesday afternoon.

All arriving flights that were inside the Federal Aviation Administration's Los Angeles Flight Center's airspace at the time of the ground stop landed at the airport, according to LAX spokeswoman Nancy Suey Castles.

Approximately 10 inbound flights that were outside that airspace were diverted to other airports.

"Airlines at LAX are reporting an estimated 10 cancellations and 110 departure delays throughout tonight," the spokeswoman said.

FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown stressed that radar was not down and that authorities hoped to resolve the computer glitch soon. The agency had warned of the potential for gridlock at some area airports, citing significant volume already en route.

Departure delays of up to two hours were being reported at LAX, one hour at Salt Lake City International Airport and up to an hour and a half at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas.

Officials had said ground stops were also in effect at Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, Long Beach Airport and John Wayne Airport, all in California.

According to LAX, the airport is the sixth busiest in the world, and the third busiest in the United States.


FAA: ‘Technical Issues’ Temporarily Ground Flights at SoCal Airports
_http://ktla.com/2014/04/30/all-flights-grounded-at-lax-due-to-computer-issues/#axzz30PXl8LKL

The stop was “due to computer issues,” Los Angeles International Airport stated on Twitter.

Flights were also grounded at Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana, Long Beach Airport and Ontario International Airport, representatives of those airports confirmed.

The airports began reporting the ground stop had been lifted shortly after 3:20 p.m.


Verizon Communications outage map
_http://downdetector.com/status/verizon-communications/map

April 30, 2014 - Recent reports mostly originate from: Twentynine Palms, Yucca Valley, Palm Desert, Joshua Tree, Palm Springs, Cathedral City, Rancho Mirage, Philadelphia, Brooklyn, and New York.

AT&T outage map
_http://downdetector.com/status/att/map

April 30, 2014 - Recent reports mostly originate from: Twentynine Palms, Yucca Valley, Palm Desert, Joshua Tree, Palm Springs, Cathedral City, Los Angeles, Buena Park, Desert Hot Springs, and Torrance.

 

[Arreis13]

I fly out of CA to the UK this week I am very nervous. Knowledge protects. :D Thank you for the post.

 

[adam7117]

Yeah, that is interesting. Virgin Mobile in Australia suffered a major network outage today as well.

Virgin Mobile outage leaves customers without phone service
_http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/mobiles/virgin-mobile-outage-leaves-customers-without-phone-service-20140503-zr3qn.html

Virgin Mobile customers are currently languishing without phone service after the national network suffered a partial collapse overnight.

The company said approximately a third of its one million subscribers had been affected, adding it was working "tirelessly" to fix the issue and there would be further updates on Facebook shortly.

David Scribner, Head of Virgin Mobile Australia confirmed on Saturday the company would be ‘‘crediting’’ customers affected by the disruption with an entire day’s access fee, as compensation.

 

[angelburst29]

Yeah, that is interesting. Virgin Mobile in Australia suffered a major network outage today as well.

Virgin Mobile outage leaves customers without phone service
_http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/mobiles/virgin-mobile-outage-leaves-customers-without-phone-service-20140503-zr3qn.html

Virgin Mobile customers are currently languishing without phone service after the national network suffered a partial collapse overnight.

The company said approximately a third of its one million subscribers had been affected, adding it was working "tirelessly" to fix the issue and there would be further updates on Facebook shortly.

David Scribner, Head of Virgin Mobile Australia confirmed on Saturday the company would be ‘‘crediting’’ customers affected by the disruption with an entire day’s access fee, as compensation.

Interesting that Australia also suffered a major network outage around the same time frame. Even more interesting, considering NBC is running an article blaming a U-2 spy plane as the source of the problem?

_http://www.nbcnews.com/news/investigations/spy-plane-fries-air-traffic-control-computers-shuts-down-lax-n95886

A relic from the Cold War appears to have triggered a software glitch at a major air traffic control center in California Wednesday that led to delays and cancellations of hundreds of flights across the country, sources familiar with the incident told NBC News.

On Wednesday at about 2 p.m., according to sources, a U-2 spy plane, the same type of aircraft that flew high-altitude spy missions over Russia 50 years ago, passed through the airspace monitored by the L.A. Air Route Traffic Control Center in Palmdale, Calif. The L.A. Center handles landings and departures at the region’s major airports, including Los Angeles International (LAX), San Diego and Las Vegas.

The computers at the L.A. Center are programmed to keep commercial airliners and other aircraft from colliding with each other. The U-2 was flying at 60,000 feet, but the computers were attempting to keep it from colliding with planes that were actually miles beneath it.

Though the exact technical causes are not known, the spy plane’s altitude and route apparently overloaded a computer system called ERAM, which generates display data for air-traffic controllers. Back-up computer systems also failed.

As a result, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had to stop accepting flights into airspace managed by the L.A. Center, issuing a nationwide ground stop that lasted for about an hour and affected thousands of passengers.

At LAX, one of the nation’s busiest airports, there were 27 cancellations of arriving flights, as well as 212 delays and 27 diversions to other airports. Twenty-three departing flights were cancelled, while 216 were delayed. There were also delays at the airports in Burbank, Long Beach, Ontario and Orange County and at other airports across the Southwestern U.S.

In a statement to NBC News, the FAA said that it was “investigating a flight-plan processing issue” at the L.A. Air Route Traffic Control Center, but did not elaborate on the reasons for the glitch and did not confirm that it was related to the U-2’s flight.

“FAA technical specialists resolved the specific issue that triggered the problem on Wednesday, and the FAA has put in place mitigation measures as engineers complete development of software changes,” said the agency in a statement. “The FAA will fully analyze the event to resolve any underlying issues that contributed to the incident and prevent a reoccurrence.”

Sources told NBC News that the plane was a U-2 with a Defense Department flight plan. “It was a ‘Dragon Lady,’” said one source, using the nickname for the plane. Edwards Air Force Base is 30 miles north of the L.A. Center. Both Edwards and NASA’s Neil A. Armstrong Flight Research Center, which is located at Edwards, have been known to host U-2s and similar, successor aircraft.

Gary Hatch, spokesman for Edwards Air Force Base, would not comment on the Wednesday incident, but said, “There are no U-2 planes assigned to Edwards.”

A spokesperson for the Armstrong Flight Research Center did not immediately return a call for comment.

 

[Laura]

This whole thing is very suspicious if you ask me. That "blame it on the U2" business is just lame.

 

[LQB]

This whole thing is very suspicious if you ask me. That "blame it on the U2" business is just lame.

Or, the U2 was testing a countermeasures (ECM) transponder designed to impede traffic control. Often, these kinds of systems get turned on inadvertently - which will never appear in the news. So it could also have been a blunder.

 

[angelburst29]

I came across this report and wonder if something like this caused the computer and communication problems SoCal Airports and in
Australia?

Tales of the unexpected: mystery remains over Central Europe ATC blackouts
_http://www.ihsairport360.com/article/4437/tales-of-the-unexpected-mystery-remains-over-central-europe-atc-blackouts

Tuesday 01 July 2014

A Thales TopSky ATC display as used by Austro Control. In two separate incidents on 5 and 10 June, controllers lost track of aircraft on their displays. Source: Georg Mader

Key Points
•Commercial air traffic control was disrupted in Central Europe on 5 and 10 June
•NATO denies a connection between the blackouts and electronic warfare exercises held in Hungary and Italy

On 5 June 2014 radar tracks of commercial aircraft in Central European airspace flickered and then vanished for almost half an hour from air traffic controller displays in Vienna, Prague, Munich, and Karlsruhe. Five days later the phenomenon recurred with a lower number of aircraft flying at higher altitudes.

In all, the display of the transponder signals from about 50 airliners over Central Europe was interrupted. Affected ATC centres maintained contact with the aircraft via radio, added extra controllers to the relevant sectors, and increased separation distances during the incidents.

The unusual events sparked speculation that civil air traffic transponder signals had been jammed by NATO electronic warfare (EW) exercises or interfered with by NATO AWACS surveillance aircraft, which have been flying regular missions over Europe to monitor Russian activities near Ukraine.

Markus Pohanka, a spokesperson for Austrian air navigation service provider (ANSP) Austro Control, described the events as "unprecedented". He confirmed that Austrian controllers saw tracks for 13 aircraft "mysteriously disappear" on 5 June. "On 10 June there were lesser numbers [affected], but also for some 25 minutes each," he said. "Soon we learned that some neighbouring countries had experienced similar problems."

Although data on aircraft position, direction, height, and speed disappeared from the controllers' displays during the incidents, the outages posed no serious danger to passengers or the aircraft involved, added Pohanka.

Neighbouring ANSPs reacted similarly. Air Navigation Services of the Czech Republic (ANS CR) saw "random outages of aircraft detection within the system of the so-called secondary radar lasting several tens of seconds and up to several minutes," said spokesman Richard Klima. He added that military primary radar coverage gave ANS CR a constant feed of data about aircraft positions, "and operational safety was not threatened".

Austro Control and ANS CR informed their respective national aviation safety agencies. Meanwhile, Eurocontrol and the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) have begun an investigation - but neither was available for comment at the time of writing.

There have been moves to alleviate congestion in busy Central European airspace by establishing FABCE: a single functional airspace block (FAB) unifying the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Slovenia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

FABCE and other FABs are supposed to remove the operational problems that result from fragmented air traffic management in Europe. However, they face opposition from controller unions. An Austro Control employee, who spoke to IHS Jane's on condition of anonymity, argued that the June incidents underlined the need to maintain separate systems: "A huge centralised system would possibly never have been able to react as ... individuals in each centre were able to."

Pohanka, while careful not to attribute the incidents to a specific source, said: "The reason for these various disappearances must have been an external source of disruption. We double-checked our systems in trying to identify the cause, but we found no faults or glitches."

Klima was clearer. "There are indications that the problems was associated with a NATO EW exercise in Hungary," he said.

In fact, Austrian newspaper Kurier reported that air traffic controllers in Bratislava (unaffected by the disruption), traced a disruption signal emitted by NATO. After 25 minutes - the length of the disruption in each instance - the Slovak controllers were able to reach NATO, after which the aircraft contacts returned to controller displays.

Slovak authorities confirmed that the incidents "are in context with military exercises in several parts of Europe that were held around those two particular days [5 and 10 June]. Within the focus of these exercises, jamming of transponder-signals was one of the goals".

Immediately after the 5 June incident, the Karlsruhe Upper Area Control Centre (run by German ANSP DFS) informed the NATO Combined Air Operations Centre (CAOC) at Uedem, in North Rhine/Westphalia. NATO officers concluded that the disruption was linked to the EW exercise in Hungary.

A senior source within the Austrian Air Force confirmed to IHS Jane's that it kept abreast of the incidents with Selex ES RAT-31L primary radar coverage from the Golden Hat air surveillance system. The RAT-31L employs multiple simultaneous independently phase-controlled pencil beams that provide flexibility in scanning, and enable the radar to adapt to a broad spectrum of changing operational scenarios where jammers coexist with heavy clutter.

"We were actively able track all plane movements all the time, unlike the passive radar used by civilian air traffic control," said the source. "Our air picture [codenamed] Kreidfeuer continued to show all the contacts at all times." The source added that Austrian Air Force EW specialists are investigating possible reasons for the disruption.

NATO confirmed in a 15 June statement that it had carried out training "that involved localised and low-power jamming in the skies over Hungary" during exercises on 2-6 June and that similar training in southern Italy was then under way, on 9-20 June.

However, NATO denied that jamming was conducted in either exercise, and dismissed the idea that AWACS was responsible, noting that the surveillance aircraft have no jamming capability.

"Our assessment is that NATO did not cause any interference with civilian air traffic control frequencies," the alliance insisted.

"When NATO conducts such exercises, we co-ordinate our activities with relevant civilian authorities and only use frequencies provided to us by the host nation. We will co-operate with these authorities in order to be absolutely sure that there is no connection between our exercises and the frequency interference issues that have been reported."


Berlin points finger at NATO for June ATC blackouts
_http://www.ihsairport360.com/article/4535/berlin-points-finger-at-nato-for-june-atc-blackouts

Thursday 24 July 2014

It is increasingly likely that NATO electronic warfare exercises in Hungary and Italy temporarily blinded civilian ATC in central Europe on 5 and 10 June 2014 (pictured is a Hungarian military SZT-68U 'Tin Shield' S-Band mobile radar). Source: Georg Mader

The German government has indicated that NATO electronic warfare (EW) training exercises were responsible for civilian ATC radar display blackouts in central Europe on 5 June and 10 June 2014.

IHS Jane's has obtained the government's answer to a parliamentary question on 17 July, in which it noted that: "In the relevant time period two separate exercises by NATO forces with EW assets were conducted, in the first case by the Hungarian Air Force and in the second by the Italian Army and [undisclosed] partners."

Both exercises involved ground-based air defence radar assets and were held under the NATO Electronic Warfare Integration Period programme. The German government statement said this is "especially dedicated to test and train EW in the airspace. Further details at the moment cannot be given, as investigations by EASA and NATO are ongoing".

Informed by IHS Jane's about the German information, an Austrian Air Force official would not disclose if Austria was informed about NATO EW activities in its airspace. The official emphasised that during the June incidents, the Air Force retained full coverage of Austrian airspace with its Kreidfeuer situational awareness picture, which is provided by three fixed Selex ES RAT-31L primary radars.