Bracing for Glitch 2

So who dropped the ball on the NAIA air traffic management system?

Tension appears to be emerging between the current and former administrations over the “technical glitch” that shut down Philippine airspace on the first day of the year.

This issue refuses to go away because so far, authorities have failed to provide convincing reassurance that the breakdown of critical components of air traffic control in the country’s main airport will not be repeated in the near future.

In fact what we’re seeing is the opposite: people are worried that a similar technical glitch is inevitable, considering that both the uninterrupted power supply and the backup UPS broke down.

Airport authorities are still conducting an investigation and finalizing what they will tell the Senate, which is certain to conduct a probe into the New Year’s Day disaster. But so far, their preliminary explanation of what happened has not changed much.

The UPS powers the Communications, Navigation and Surveillance for Air Traffic Management system, which is under the supervision of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines. CAAP officials have said the CNS/ATM system is “outdated” and needs replacement of spare parts, including the cooling fan or blower that malfunctioned, making the UPS conk out.

The back-up UPS in turn failed to kick in. When the CNS/ATM was connected to the airport’s commercial grid, somehow no one bothered to check voltage compatibility before the 220-volt system was plugged into the 380-volt network. The resulting power surge led to a total breakdown of the CNS/ATM.

We ordinary folks can be forgiven for not knowing that a three-phased 380-volt commercial power supply – unusual in our country where 220 volts is the norm – is used in airports and other areas with 24/7 high power consumption. Shouldn’t CAAP engineers, however, be aware of this?

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Not surprisingly, the air traffic control system breakdown has branched out to other issues. The camp of former transport secretary Arthur Tugade has hotly denied accusations that the Duterte administration used P13 billion for “beautification” projects instead of the upgrading or procurement of proper air traffic management equipment.

A legal counsel of Tugade, former transport undersecretary Ochie Tuazon, told “The Chiefs” on One News last Wednesday that the CNS/ATM was installed only in 2018 so it cannot be outdated after just over four years. The system also comes with a manual of instructions for maintenance, Tuazon said.

With periodic maintenance approximately every six months, he said the CNS/ATM should not have had the glitch. Apart from maintenance, he said the system needs to be housed in a temperature-controlled environment.

Tuazon sniffed that CAAP Director General Antonio Tamayo, who described the CNS/ATM as outdated, was in fact part of the group that recommended the technology to the Department of Transportation (DOTr).

Another report, however, said the CNS/ATM was procured way back in 2010 but came on stream only in 2018. This placed the system behind the one used in Singapore’s Changi International Airport by at least 10 years, according to Tamayo – the reason he described the system as outdated.

We still don’t know why it took eight years for the system to come on stream.

Nevertheless, Tuazon stressed that the CNS/ATM along with the UPS were working just fine when the DOTr under Tugade turned it over to the new team.

Tuazon also said there is no need to procure a new CNS/ATM system, which could cost billions, to replace the “outdated” one, since the current one, with proper maintenance and mere replacement of spare parts, should have several more years of efficient performance.

Instead of engaging in finger-pointing, Tuazon said the CAAP should determine exactly what went wrong, identify the parts that need replacement instead of the entire system, carefully read the CNS/ATM manual and strictly comply with the maintenance schedule.

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Transport Secretary Jimmy Bautista, who is familiar with air traffic management issues from his days as head of Philippine Airlines, has announced that “heads will roll” in case negligence is established.

Bautista has inspected the CNS/ATM and UPS together with defense, intelligence, aviation and IT officials and experts, reinforcing speculation that the government is also looking into the possibility of sabotage or, worse, a terrorist attack.

I don’t know what sicko cause a sabotage might serve. But if such is the case, it should at least prove easier to prevent from happening again, by placing air traffic management equipment under maximum security.

And I don’t mean the laughable maximum security we see at the New Bilibid Prison, but the genuine article, with access strictly limited to equipment whose malfunction can cause severe public inconvenience and acute national embarrassment.

President Marcos, now that he’s back from his getting-to-know you with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, should dump his tack of publicly distancing himself from ugly developments and take a direct hand in the matter.

BBM is already perceived to be keeping his distance from the onion crisis and the still ongoing sugar mess, despite being the concurrent head of the Department of Agriculture. Yesterday, the DA spokesperson admitted that onion prices are “currently out of control.”

In the case of the air traffic control problem, the President will need to step in. BBM cannot continue to keep silent on this issue and divert public attention with a New Year palm-reading session with his Vice President.

The nation needs reassurance that the airport disaster on the first day of the year was just a fluke and will not happen again anytime soon.

So far, details emerging from the fact-finding effort give the impression that we haven’t seen the last of the calamitous NAIA glitches. The problem needs the country’s fixer-in-chief.