Total panic at the beginning of the year. Tens of thousands of travelers were stranded at airports in the Philippines on Sunday after a power outage disabled communications equipment and radar systems at Manila’s main airport, causing hundreds of flights to be canceled, delayed or rerouted.
In total, more than 360 flights scheduled to arrive and depart from the Philippine capital were affected, according to airport authorities, with consequences for around 56,000 passengers. And this after he noticed a “technical problem” in the air traffic control center of Manila’s domestic and international airport in the morning. A glitch that occurred when many travelers returned to the capital after the Christmas and New Year holidays.
hours before landing
Chaotic scenes followed at the boarding counters, where thousands of people tried to find out the departure date of their plane or buy a new ticket. Others who had boarded before this technical incident was announced waited for hours before being forced to disembark. Officials in the sector initially gave no information on the cause of the problem.
But Secretary of Transportation Jaime Bautista later explained that a power outage had caused the air traffic management center that controls incoming flights to stop working and that it had caused the disruption in radio communications over the Internet and the operation of to begin with the radars. Added to this was “the surge from the power outage that affected the equipment,” he continued.
A “confusing” experience
The air traffic management system was partially restored around 4 p.m. (8 a.m. GMT) and planes then began taking off and landing again in Manila, airport authorities said. “Flight delays and diversions are simple precautionary measures to ensure the safety of passengers, crew and aircraft,” the Civil Aviation Administration of the Philippines said.
Many passengers protested against this malfunction and the lack of information on site. A woman who was due to fly to Singapore said she sat on the plane on the tarmac for several hours before she was able to disembark and was offered a hotel room. “We were told there was a complete radio blackout at air traffic control,” she said.
Filipino tycoon Manny Pangilinan said on Twitter that his Tokyo-Manila plane was diverted to Tokyo Haneda Airport due to an outage “of radar and navigation equipment” on the flight. “Six hours of flying for nothing but the inconvenience to travelers and the loss to tourism and the economy is terrible,” he lamented. In Manila, one passenger, Daryll Delgado, explained that she was able to make a new reservation for later after an “upsetting” experience. In Davao (south), travelers were advised “not to go to the airport,” but many discovered their flight cancellation when they were already checking in, according to a journalist.