Arrival Manager System experiences a temporary hiccup
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"At about 12.15pm today, the AMAN temporarily could only show the arrival sequence of some of the arrival flights. In the light of the prevailing situation, the well-trained Air Traffic Control Officers (ATCOs) immediately handled the landing sequence according to the default in-trail spacing without a hitch. Throughout the process, the ATCOs continued to monitor the location of all the aircraft through radar screens. The technical staff switched over the AMAN to its backup system at 12.35pm and the AMAN services resumed normal. Flight movements at the Hong Kong International Airport were generally normal and aviation safety has not been undermined. The Civil Aviation Department (CAD) and the contractor are examining the root cause of the occurrence and relevant follow-up action," a CAD spokesman said.
The AMAN is not a tool to safeguard the standard separation between the aircraft, but basically a tool to provide automatically the arrival sequence of arrival flights and to assist the ATCOs in arranging the arrival sequence, so as to achieve more efficient use of airspace and optimise the arrival capacity.
The AMAN has already been put into operation in 2010 when the old ATMS was in operation. It was not developed by the Raytheon Company and was used to be independent of the old ATMS. The new ATMS enhanced AMAN’s functions and incorporated it, providing the ATCOs with a one-stop information platform for sequencing.
It would be prudent to invite the ATMS Expert Panel to review the operations and performance of the AMAN. The safety performance of the new ATMS, so far, has exceeded international requirements. The CAD will continue to optimise the system as well as the operating procedures, with a view to enabling the system to achieve and exceed the international requirements in a consistent manner.
Ends/Sunday, February 12, 2017
Issued at HKT 22:37
Issued at HKT 22:37
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