Flight chaos in northern Italy. Enav: connectivity problem guaranteed by Tim. The reply: extraneous to the facts

A Saturday of passion for flights in north-western Italy. Air traffic in Lombardy, Piedmont and Liguria came to a virtual standstill for several hours, with airports in the area forced to close their airspace due to a fault in the Area Control Centre, the structure that oversees the movement of aircraft at altitude via radar. According to Enav, which confirmed shortly before midnight that the situation had returned to normal, the cause was a problem with the data connectivity provided by Tim.

"Yesterday evening there was a malfunction in the radar data transmission system at the Area Control Centre in Milan, which is responsible for air traffic management over northwest Italy. The problem affected the connectivity that allows radar data to flow to the operations room and which is guaranteed by an external telecommunications provider, namely Tim. The breakdown affected both the main connection and the backup connection of the Enet operational network, which redundantly links all of Enav's sites,' said the body that controls air traffic and which, as mentioned, had announced on Saturday night that the breakdown had been resolved, as confirmed later by the Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Matteo Salvini, 'who has been closely monitoring the development of the situation and is in constant contact with all those involved, starting with Enav.

Tim's reply was not long in coming. "While taking note of Enav's press release, Tim points out that data transmission is guaranteed by redundant systems so that if one channel fails, another backup channel is activated. The Group confirms that it has been constantly operating to monitor the situation and guarantee the levels of reliability required by the system both for the component under its own contractual responsibility and in support of Enav," the Tlc group underlines. "Finally, noting that the operation of the radar depends on different systems referable to different operators," the note continues, "and on the basis of the information in our possession, Tim considers itself extraneous to the facts. We trust that the analyses underway will establish the chain of responsibility, also with a view to ensuring that the incident cannot be repeated".

The problems seem, therefore, to have returned. This morning, flights are regular both at Orio al Serio and at the Milan airports of Linate and Malpensa. At Orio yesterday, 17 departing flights were cancelled while others left late when the problem was solved, while 16 arriving flights were diverted to other airports. About ten flights were instead cancelled at Milan airports.

In the meantime, Enac has turned on a spotlight: 'Yesterday we worked to restore the system in conjunction with Enav to guarantee the protection of passengers, and now the investigation is underway to understand the origins of the breakdown and implement actions to prevent a recurrence of the problem,' the body's president, Pierluigi Di Palma, told Ansa, speaking of the breakdown that last night led to the blocking of some 320 planes taking off or landing at airports in north-west Italy. Enac, he added, 'has a supervisory role over Enav'.