Duplicate waypoints root cause of Nats subsystem failover | Computer Weekly
Summary
The report notes that air traffic control systems require accurate flight data to understand the intended route of aircraft so that ANSPs can assess air traffic demand on their airspace, and support the safe and efficient handling of multiple aircraft within that airspace. The FPRSA-R primary system then raised a critical error and correctly placed itself into maintenance mode. “Clearly, a better way to handle this specific logic error would be for FPRSA-R to identify and remove the message and avoid a critical exception,” the report said. Nats has now established new operating instructions to allow prompt recovery of the FPRSA-R subsystem if the same circumstances recur. The manufacturer of the software has introduced an update, designed to prevent the critical exception from recurring for any flight plan that triggers the conditions that led to the incident.