Tens of thousands of travellers were stranded at airports across the Philippines on Sunday following a power outage that knocked out communications equipment and the radar system at the main airport in Manila, leading to cancel, delay or divert hundreds of flights.
In total, more than 360 flights scheduled to arrive in and depart from the Philippine capital have been affected, with consequences for around 56,000 passengers, according to airport authorities. In the morning, Manila airport management detected a “technical problem” involving the air traffic management centre of the international airport.
Scenes of chaos followed at the boarding counters where thousands of people tried to find out when their plane could take off. Others who had boarded before the announcement of this technical incident waited for hours before having to disembark.
Transportation Department Secretary Jaime Bautista later said a power outage caused the air traffic management centre, which controls incoming flights, to stop working. and initially, this caused the interruption of radio communications, via the internet and the operation of radars. Furthermore, “the overvoltage due to the power failure affected the equipment“, he continued.
The air traffic management system was partially restored around 16:00 local time (0800 GMT) and planes then began to take off and land again in Manila, airport authorities said.
“Flight delays and diversions are simple precautionary measures to ensure the safety of passengers, crew and aircraft,” said the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines.
Many passengers protested against this dysfunction and the lack of information on site.
