East Belgian airspace restricted because of network problems

[sn26567]

BREAKING : the Eastern part of the Belgian airspace has been restricted by Belgocontrol because of network problems. The communications between Brussels and Liege are partially interrupted.

Flights will be affected. Indeed Belgocontrol can only handle one flight at a time in East Belgium.

Belgocontrol works together with the network provider to solve the problem.

[sdbelgium]

AZ156 FCO-BRU diverted to CDG as a result of the delay caused by network problems at Belgocontrol.

[sn26567]

At BRU a few flights have already been cancelled. Many others are delayed by up to two hours.

CRL is also affected: one flight was delayed by 30 min, others have minimal delays.

[sn26567]

Information from Eurocontrol:

2 sectors in Brussels East FIR are not available until 12 30 UTC due to technical problems (frequency failure).
We are closely monitoring the situation and will inform you on the further developments.
Delays are very high.

[Passenger]

Türkish TK1945 SAW-BRU (TC-JFP, 737-800) diverted to AMS Amsterdam.

Ryanair FR-1058 WMI-CRL (EI-FIG, 737-800) diverted to Hahn.

[lumumba]

What a poor country....

[Passenger]

Türkish TK1945 SAW-BRU (TC-JFP, 737-800) diverted to AMS Amsterdam.

Ryanair FR-1058 WMI-CRL (EI-FIG, 737-800) diverted to HHN Hahn.

Aegean A3-620 ATH-BRU (SX-DVX, A320-200) diverted to SXB Strassbourg.

[Passenger]

Türkish TK1945 SAW-BRU (TC-JFP, 737-800) diverted to AMS Amsterdam.

Ryanair FR-1058 WMI-CRL (EI-FIG, 737-800) diverted to HHN Hahn.

Aegean A3-620 ATH-BRU (SX-DVX, A320-200) diverted to SXB Strassbourg.

Ryanair's EI-EMF just positionned from Hahn to Charleroi.

[Acid-drop]

frequency failure ?
what's that suppose to mean ?
sounds like any kid can scramble with the frequencies

[sn26567]

Belgocontrol announces that the situation is back to normal. In total 133 flights have been impacted by the problem.

[evyncke]

The Friday paper LeSoir claimed that the network linking BRU, LGG, EBSP and EBSH was failing. It also claimed that the operation of this network was outsourced to another company.

Now, as a private pilot, AFAIK, the EBSH (Saint-Hubert) is really important as the low air radio for the Ardennes is broadcasted/received from an antenna based in Saint-Hubert (which is nearly 'our Belgian mountains'). So, I guess that Belgocontrol ATCO at CANAC were unable to use this antenna, so, unable to talk to 'low' planes in the East of Belgium.

Can anyone confirm?

[jan_olieslagers]

@evyncke: I do not think so, but must admit I have no hard facts. And those that do have them, or could, are remarkably silent...

As an IT engineer (and a private pilot!) I understand the trouble was with the data communications between the various data centers, where the servers are. It is normal for these data centres to be linked by glass fibre cable, either dedicated (i.e. one gets the streets dug up and a cable being laid from one data centre to the other - I was involved with such an operation near Brussels South station some 10 years ago - but that would be _very_ expensive over the long distances mentioned here - or one rents some bandwidth from a specialised operator.

It is common to rent the normally required bandwidth from one operator but to also rent some capacity from another, both as a backup and to keep some commercial pressure. I understand some "main" connection failed (perhaps a farmer hit a cable with the plough? It is that time of the year!) so that only the backup connection remained available; this had less bandwidth, getting congested, making network traffic very slow. I have known, under similar circumstances, operations that normally run in milliseconds to take several minutes.

Imagine a plane taking off from EBBR is passed from TWR to DEP, and the TWR operator duly reports this on the IT system; but the info takes 5 or 10 minutes before being visible to the other ATC staff...

Mind you, all of this is pure hypothesis, I would be glad for some factual information to turn up.

[jan_olieslagers]

@evyncke: interesting what you state about a relay at EBSH. Is there a list somewhere of these relays, and the frequencies they serve? When re-entering EBBU FIR from the East, I have often observed Brussels Information could not receive me very well, even from 4000'.

[evyncke]

@evyncke: interesting what you state about a relay at EBSH. Is there a list somewhere of these relays, and the frequencies they serve? When re-entering EBBU FIR from the East, I have often observed Brussels Information could not receive me very well, even from 4000'.

AFAIK, there are only two antennas receiving/transmitting on the same frequency 126.90 MHz (also private pilot here ), one near EBBR and one near EBSH. This explains why sometimes FIS does not reply to you because someone on the other side of Belgium spoke at the same time: FIS got it but you do not hear the other plane over EBOS if you are above EBSP for example

My guess is that the same applies for the airspace above FL045 (obviously, once you are high enough, you do not care anymore)

-éric