What’s going on at Skyguide? There will never be an end to air traffic control accidents

It was a day that those responsible for Skyguide would like to forget. On June 15, 2022, at 4:40 a.m., the Swiss air traffic control company saw itself make the emergency decision: “Clear the sky.”

It was the largest collapse in the history of federal operations. For about five hours nothing happened in the Swiss sky. It was determined that a technical error was the cause. Skyguide boss Alex Bristol described the outage as “embarrassing” and “historic” in an interview with CH Media that same afternoon. An external study into the extreme scenario commissioned by the federal government contained ten recommendations to improve air traffic control.

Then came October 30 of the current year. No planes could take off from Zurich airport for almost two hours in the afternoon. The reason: Another technical malfunction at Skyguide. Zurich Airport reported that at least 60 flights had been delayed between 20 and 100 minutes due to the disruption and around 6,600 passengers were affected.

Company spokesperson Vladi Barrosa did not answer when asked how long Skyguide could have waited to resolve the issue before a new “Clear the Sky” decision would have been necessary. Such a decision is a safety measure that is taken when safety in the airspace is no longer guaranteed. “It therefore does not matter how far away we were from it.” If the situation had required it, “Clear the Sky” would have been performed.

A human error

Upon request, Barrosa explained the exact cause of the outage for the first time on October 30. During the preparation for replacing the firewall, or the security system that protects the network against unwanted access, there was incorrect manipulation by an employee, which caused a data disruption. Flight plan data was also affected, leading to the suspension of takeoffs, Barrosa said. ‘It was an unintentional human error. A cyber attack is impossible.”

Research by CH Media shows: It did not stop at these two incidents. There was also a disruption earlier this week. As a result, takeoffs and landings were not possible on runway 16 for a long time, which led to delays.

Skyguide spokesperson Barrosa confirmed the information: “It is true that there was a brief interruption in data exchange between two Skyguide applications on Monday morning.” The interruption lasted about twenty minutes. The exact cause? “This is currently still the subject of internal investigation,” says Barrosa.

Lack of understanding at Swiss

These three disruptions are causing the industry to sit up and take notice. Swiss has not escaped this development in recent months – coincidence or not. CH Media knows: There is increasing misunderstanding among subsidiary Lufthansa, Skyguide’s most important customer.

Swiss spokeswoman Meike Fuhlrott says she does not want to comment on the possible accumulation of cases at Skyguide. But: “Air traffic control errors pose a major challenge to us because they affect the reliability of our flight program and can cause delays or cancellations.” This is particularly unfortunate for the affected passengers.

In such cases, the passengers’ frustration does not stop there. Because the airline has to pay the bill. “As an airline, we generally have to bear additional costs and additional expenses resulting from air traffic control failures,” Fuhlrott said.

This mechanism is politically desirable. “The law in Europe is designed in such a way that the airlines have to compensate passengers themselves,” Skyguide boss Bristol said in an interview on June 15, 2022. “When passing legislation, the EU wanted to ensure that air traffic control authorities always choose safety and that the decision-making process is not influenced by financial considerations.”

During and after such incidents, people are always “in direct contact” with Skyguide, Fuhlrott says. She describes the cooperation at operational level as “very good” and “constructive”. Swiss regional airline Helvetic Airways does not want to comment on Skyguide’s outages.

The Federal Office for Civil Aviation (Bazl) has taken note of the technically related incidents; ultimately these must be reported to the agency in accordance with legal requirements. “However, it is premature to speak of a trend,” said Bazl spokesman Antonello Laveglia. The office also gains insight into the results of Skyguide’s internal analyses. “In addition, the Bazl monitors the implementation of improvement measures as part of its supervisory activities.” The reliability of Skyguide therefore remains on the radar.

(aargauerzeitung.ch)