Transpo officials say incident ‘unavoidable’
THE New Year’s Day breakdown of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport’s (NAIA) air traffic management system was caused by a busted circuit breaker, not a failure in the uninterruptible power supply (UPS) equipment, transportation officials yesterday told a House committee hearing.
Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) acting director general Manuel Antonio Tamayo told the House committee on transportation that an ongoing inter-agency “forensic investigation” on the Communications, Navigation and Surveillance Systems for Air Traffic Management (CNS/ATM) of the NAIA has initially determined that the circuit breaker was the cause of the glitch and not the UPS as the Department of Transportation (DOTR) has earlier announced.
The inter-agency investigation is led by the DOTR.
Tamayo said there was an “overvoltage” in one of the primary circuit breakers prior to the entry of power to the equipment room “and when this happened, immediate actions were undertaken to address disruptions.”
“We discovered that it was not the UPS, and it was a circuit breaker that was broken,” Tamayo told the panel chaired by Antipolo Rep. Romeo Acop on the questioning of Rep. Bonifacio Bosita (PL, 1-Rider) who warned that the incident could happen again in the future.
Tamayo made the revelation as he briefed lawmakers on the real cause of the system breakdown, which affected more than 65,000 passengers and more than 300 flights.
“We don’t know the reason why it (circuit breaker) failed,” he told the panel even as he and Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista both said that the incident could not have been avoided despite regular maintenance of the equipment.
On the questioning of panel senior vice chair Parañaque City Rep. Gustavo Tambunting, Tamayo explained that the circuit breaker could not be opened for regular checking and maintenance since it had to be kept sealed.
He said there was no reason to suspect that the breaker would stop working or malfunction since it has a lifespan of 20 to 30 years.
UPS FAILURE
Following the DOTR’s initial statement that the NAIA glitch was caused by a UPS breakdown, Tamayo said the CAAP has decided to purchase additional UPS units to prevent another air traffic system malfunction and airspace shutdown since the old ones, which were bought in 2014, only have a lifespan of about 10 years.
“We evaluated the condition of our two UPS, and one of the UPS had a problem on the blower but other than that, it is functioning as it should be. The other UPS had no defects at all,” he said.
“But we did emergency procurement of two additional UPS because our current UPS is already mid-life. The UPS life is between five to 10 years. Our position is that, why wait seven to 10 years when this is vital equipment, so we procured two right away as a measure to prevent this from happening again,” he added.
Acop was skeptical on Tamayo’s explanation as he grilled the aviation official why the CAAP and the DOTR initially announced that a malfunctioning UPS was the cause of the problem.
“You said that you can’t open the circuit breaker but you initially said it was the UPS. So, to me, as an investigator, something does not add up here,” said the lawmaker, who was a former police official.
“What does that tell me? First you saw a problem in the UPS so you wanted to buy a new one, but apparently when you examined (it), there was a minor issue only but it was still functioning. When there wasn’t a very, very big problem, you looked for one,” Acop added.
Acop then asked Tamayo to explain how the CAAP determined that it was the circuit breaker “when you are not allowed to open it.”
Tamayo said the forensics probe concluded that the circuit breaker was the culprit without physically opening it since they were able to measure the voltage in four lines based on power input and output.
“And when they found out there was an issue, they (investigators) checked if the power side to load side was working and that’s when they concluded (that it was the circuit breaker),” he said.
Tamayo could not say how long the forensic probe will take but assured lawmakers that the CAAP is working closely with the DICT to come up with a result “as soon as possible.”
Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) Executive Director Carmelo Arcilla also could not say yet how much total damages passengers could claim while acknowledging that the incident had caused huge trouble and put jobs “in jeopardy.”
Asked if the government can claim force majeure (act of God) on the incident, Arcilla said:
“The matter is still under investigation, a forensic investigation by a team of experts, this is an inter-agency body.”
He said only after a thorough investigation can establish if there was negligence and bad faith “and that’s where the government’s liability or responsibility will arise.”
Castro said: “This is not force majeure. Based on the presentation of CAAP and the DOTR, there is negligence, and there should be accountability to the passengers in the form of financial compensation or whatever compensation may be.”
Gabriela Party-list Rep. Arlene Brosas, a member of the Makabayan bloc, asked if heads should roll because of the incident, while Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez said CAAP officials should consider taking a leave of absence pending the results of the inter-agency probe.
Bautista said he would consider Rodriguez’s suggestion.
“The investigation is continuing, and we will be considering asking those people involved to take a leave of absence,” Bautista told Rodriguez, who said: “It is what the Filipino nation would want because what happened was a result of gross negligence and incompetence.”
Bautista reiterated his apology to the public, especially to those who were affected by the technical glitch, as he vowed to come up with a “permanent solution affecting passengers and commuters.”
“We hope to highlight technical and financial support in upgrading the facilities in CAAP, NAIA and other regional airports,” he said, adding that a proposal to have a backup air traffic control system is being studied.
Bautista, who earlier said the DOTR would need over P13 billion to upgrade the system, thanked other agencies that “share similar sentiments on the need to amend existing procurement laws to expedite acquisition of vital technical equipment such as those of CAAP.”
‘BRAIN DRAIN’
Tamayo also raised the issue of brain drain, saying the country is losing aviation experts because they are being pirated by other countries, especially those from the Middle East that offer salaries as much as P300,000 a month to air traffic controllers, engineers and technicians.
“They are offered P300,000 to work in other countries, especially in the Middle East while here, their starting salary is only around P45,000,” he said, adding that CAAP continues to train technical people.
