Power failure at KLIA due to cable disruption - DCA

The power failure at the Air Traffic Control Centre, Subang has affected flights at the northern sector - Butterworth, Penang, Langkawi and Alor Setar - as well as at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) for more than an hour.

Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) director-general Datuk Seri Azharuddin Abdul Rahman said the problem, which was affecting the communication links, occured at 2.46pm but had since been rectified at 4.06pm.

Below is the media statement from DCA:

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The Department of Civil Aviation Malaysia (DCA) wishes to clarify on the incident of power failure at Kuala Lumpur Air Traffic Control Centre (KL ATCC) on Tuesday, 18 October 2016 from 1455 to 1606 local time.

It was reported that the power failure was due to TNB cable in Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport (LTSAAS), Subang between MAS Hanger 1 and Skypark had been disrupted.

The Gen-set was functioning, however the Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) that managed the power supply to the various ATC support equipment had failed, which resulted in electrical failure to those equipment.

As a result, the link between radio and radar stations from hill sites including IPVPN lines to and from KLIA was cut off and was not available.

The unavailability of the radar data and radio frequencies from hills sites had affected Area Control Services at the Kuala Lumpur Air Traffic Control Centre.

The arrivals and departures into KLIA were not fully disrupted because its system was connected through direct radio link independent from the KLATCC at Subang.

The main ATC System was not fully affected as it has a separate UPS. The partial availability of the system allowed ATC to provide limited services using local radio frequencies and Genting Radar data.

To ensure safety to the air spaces users, ATC has to delay aircraft on the ground at various airports including KLIA. ATC had to coordinate with our neighbouring Flight Information Regions (FIR) to space up traffics overflying Malaysia FIR. As a consequence, 43 aircrafts was delayed for departure from KLIA.

This was done to make sure that safety was not compromised during the limited ATC services. It was a temporary measure until the power supply was back to normal.

We are pleased to inform that there was no ATC incident during the power failure. All Air Traffic Controllers had done their best to ensure safety and to minimise delay to all airspace users.

DCA wishes to apologise to any inconvenience due to this power disruption.