Delhi Airport System Crash: What happened and what is ATC?

The airport administration, a technical team was immediately activated to resolve the problem in the ATC system. Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) and other relevant agencies are working together to resolve the issue as soon as possible so that flight services can return to normal.

New Delhi: Chaos erupted at Indira Gandhi International Airport, one of the country's busiest airports, on Friday (November 7) morning. The cause was a breakdown of Air Traffic Control (ATC). More than 200 flights were affected due to the technical issue. Importantly, the Message Switching System (AMSS) also experienced problems in addition to ATC. For a brief moment, it appeared as if the airport system had crashed.

Delhi Airport issued an official advisory for passengers, stating that flight operations were affected due to ATC-related issues. According to the airport administration, a technical team was immediately activated to resolve the problem in the ATC system. Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) and other relevant agencies are working together to resolve the issue as soon as possible so that flight services can return to normal.

What is an ATC glitch and how did it fail?

AMSS stands for Automatic Message Switching System. This system provides air traffic controllers with flight plans, routes, and weather information on their screens. The system shut down automatically around 3 p.m. on Thursday afternoon. Its operation was manually restored. Due to the system shutdown, tasks that used to take 10 seconds now took 10-15 minutes.

What information did the airport provide regarding the ATC system?

The airport stated, "We apologize for the inconvenience and hope the problem will be resolved soon." Following the ATC system outage, passenger traffic increased at the terminal, with many arriving at the counters to check their flight status. Some passengers also expressed concern about their connecting flights due to the delay.