Guess who kept the British PM waiting

David Cameron is running behind schedule thanks to a radar failure at Delhi airport

British Prime Minister David Cameron had to wait at least 20 minutes in the air before landing in Delhi as the Air Traffic Control (ATC) radar went blank at the Indira Gandhi International Airport on Wednesday. Cameron, on his first visit to India after becoming Prime Minister in May, reached Delhi from Bangalore and his aircraft landed at 6:15 pm, more than 20 minutes behind schedule.



"The aircraft kept on hovering over the airport for some time and landed at 6:15 pm. Other planes were held back for a few minutes for the VIP flight," said airport sources.

A spokesperson for the Civil Aviation Ministry said, "The ATC Computer System Auto Track III which is under validation trials at IGI Airport developed a technical snag at 5:50 pm.u00a0 However, the other computer system Auto Track II, which was maintained as hot stand-by, was being used for ATC operations. There was no disruption or delay of flight operations on account of this." A Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) official too denied any flight delays. "No flight at T3 was affected by ATC radar problem," he said.

However, airport sources said around 50 flights were affected due to the radar snag, including the plane carrying the British Prime Minister. They added that no incoming flight was diverted to any other airport but they were made to hover over the Delhi airspace till the Autotrac-II system was made operational.
"Autotrac-III system had stopped transmitting inputs to the radar consoles, which show the traffic in the airspace controlled by ATC tower and give vital information like aircraft speed, height and call-signs," sources said.

"The system was fixed about an hour later but the ATC continued to operate on AT-II since the other system could not be validated. Before the switch-over took place, ATC had to use manual mode to assist flights in landing. Nearby ATC zones were also told to hold flights in their respective airspace until the switch-over happened," confirmed a senior airport official.