North West radar room problems, inconveniences at airports

Flights cancelled, delayed and diverted: it was a passionate afternoon at the airports of Liguria, Piedmont and Lombardy, due to a fault in the data management operating system of the Enav radar room in Milan, the one that manages traffic in the North West. From the National Flight Assistance Agency, they made it known that they immediately switched to the secondary system, which however, according to European regulations, cannot function at 100% but only at 35%. This created the block. And even if the problem was resolved within half an hour, the consequences were felt for a long time in the Milanese airports of Linate and Malpensa, but also Orio al Serio, Turin Caselle and Genoa. Ita also warned users on social media of the “strong repercussions on operations”.

If departing flights simply remained grounded, arriving flights were more problematic. If a Wizzair flight arriving from Tirana to Orio al Serio landed in Bologna, a Ryanair flight from Hamburg fared worse which, instead of landing in Italy, stopped in Memmingen, one hundred kilometers from Munich. And yet another flight from Castellon de la Playa made a stop in Marseille, France. But other flights were diverted to Venice, Trieste, Rome. The other three ENAV radar rooms (located in Rome, Padua and Brindisi) have not in fact recorded any problems. “I am a prisoner on a flight diverted to Fiumicino” a passenger wrote to Vueling via social media asking for explanations.

And there are those who have not renounced the irony with comments such as “they also put a nail in Malpensa”, a reference to the train circulation problems of two weeks ago due to a nail that severed a cable during maintenance work. In addition to delays and diverted flights, there were also many cancellations. A further problem on this Sunday afternoon, the day on which tourists typically return home after holidays or leisure weekends. The breakdown also had a tail of political controversy: the M5s group leader in the Chamber’s Transport commission, Antonino Iaria, said that «while waiting to ascertain in detail what happened, it is striking that Salvini, particularly talkative when there is attack launches the Italian judiciary, always be particularly silent when there are misunderstandings affecting Italian transport. Misunderstandings which, since the Northern League leader has been Minister of Transport, are increasingly frequent. It will surely just be a coincidence. After last night’s poisonous interview against the Italian judiciary on Tg1, millions of Italians are wondering when they will be able to listen to him on the news to find out what is happening to Italian transport, which is close to collapse. We wait confidently.” (HANDLE).