PH gov’t starts probe of New Year...

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“The technical glitch… was a wake-up call for all of us about the need to address the gaps in our air transport systems and the CAAP is front and center in all of this,” Angara said.

After the Jan. 1 incident, CAAP Director General Manuel Tamayo acknowledged that the agency’s CNS/ATM system, which was completed in 2019, was already outdated, adding that they had made some recommendations for its improvement to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

The system suddenly went offline on the morning of Jan. 1 due to a power supply problem.

Two uninterruptible power supply units also failed to work, leaving the air navigation system unable to tap into commercial or standby power.

After conducting some troubleshooting, CAAP technicians were able to restore partial operations around 4 p.m. with the CNS/ATM system returning to normal mode almost two hours later. But by then, over 300 flights to and from Manila had either been canceled, delayed, or diverted, affecting around 65,000 passengers flying to their destinations after the holidays. 