Raytheon team to fix glitches in ATC software

“The company is sending engineers next week with Patches for the software glitches that led to the failure last week,” said a senior AAI official. Raytheon officials were also at the ATC tower last Thursday to investigate the reasons for the glitches. Following the failure of the system,the AAI began investigations on two fronts: at the level of the Mumbai ATC and at the level of Raytheon that supplied the software to Delhi and Mumbai

airports.

“ Raytheon will have to simulate the sequence of events that led to the failure,” said an AAI official.

In a report sent to the Airports Authority of India,the Mumbai ATC listed the sequence of events after the first signs of glitches showed up. The first server of Auto track 3 crashed,which engaged the backup second server. Within minutes,the back up server also failed. This led controllers to engage the older system,Auto Track 2.

“The first thing that controllers did was to increase the radar separation between the aircraft that were in touch with the Mumbai control,through their VHF sets. In the minutes before Auto Track 2 became operational,controllers were unable to see the aircraft on the radar screen but they were in touch with the commanders through their hand sets,” said another official.

At the time of the software meltdown,the ATC was in touch with 17 arriving and 15 departing

aircraft.