A failure in the uninterruptible power supply equipment being used by the CAAP triggered the technical problems that affected flight operations at the Naia and prevented aircraft on international routes from passing through PH airspace on New Year’s Day.
According to Tamayo, when one of the UPS failed at 9:49 a.m. due to a cooling blower conking out, the other UPS also failed, leaving the CNS/ATM powerless.Tamayo explained that the after the UPS being used by the Air Traffic Management Center for its commercial power supply conked out, the UPS backup failed to go online.
When technicians tried to bypass the damaged UPS, Tamayo said that they placed an automatic voltage regulator that would limit the power coming into the system at 220 volts. The power supply issue was fixed, but it then issued a warning for overvoltage, as the system was receiving 380 volts. Tamayo explained further that the VSAT was key to communicating with arriving and departing planes, as these are satellite dishes used for communication, navigation, and computation of the data.
“No’ng nilipat nila ‘yon, this occurred at about 5:45 this afternoon, we got the CNS/ATM back online,” he added.