System failure causes disruption of air traffic

Due to a failure of the radar system at German air traffic control no aircraft were able to take off at Munich Airport last Friday 06 July. Landings were only allowed occasionally. Over one hundred of flights had to be cancelled and many flights were considerably delayed. The system failure was also responsible for a cancellation of a scheduled meeting of German and French Ministers on Friday. Travelers were advised to stay informed via the website of the airport.

At 12.45pm a failure in the radar system occurred in the air traffic control, but the air traffic control managed to boot up the system successfully again at around 3pm. Many flights that were already in the air at the time of the failure had to be coordinated by using a backup system. The reasons for the technical difficulties are still unclear. A security risk due to the error did not exist according to the German air traffic control.

Usually 1100 aircraft per day land and take off at Munich Airport, but due to the technical difficulties Munich Airport was able to work only to half of its capacity. A spokesman for air traffic control said that it is for individual airlines to decide whether they still want to run the affected flights in the face of the considerable delays.

The German air traffic control headquarters in Langen reported that the system failure caused considerable delays at airports in Bavaria, Thuringia and Saxony. During the radar failure no additional aircraft were guided in the affected airspace and all departures at the affected local airports had to be cancelled.