Julian Moxon/PARIS
Bringing European air trafÞc control (ATC) computers up to year 2000 standard is taxing both the national service providers and the Brussels-based Eurocontrol organisation, which has responsibility for the Maastricht upper airspace region and for the central ßow management units (CFMUs) at Paris, France, and Brussels, Belgium.
Eurocontrol Y2K project manager Jorgen Blume admits the region is faced with a "tough challenge" meeting thedeadline, but insists the inherent safeguards provided within the ATC system will ensure safety will not be compromised. He reveals, though, that there may be outages, which would lead to delays. The scale of the potential problem, however, is "something we cannot know until it happens".
Today, and largely as a result of Eurocontrol's efforts through the European air traffic control harmonisation programme (Eatchip), most European radars, while using a variety of different software, have some sort of link enabling radar data to be handed automatically from one flight information region to the adjacent one. While the Eatchip work "helps us be aware of the situation", Blume says the individual states are "basically on their own" as far as upgrading their software goes. This implies that neighbouring ATC providers must "do their homework" to ensure compatibility with any changes introduced in a particular region.
EXPECT THE WORST
"We have always looked at the worst case scenario for ATC," says Blume, "which means essentially that there is a procedure for every kind of failure. If solutions [to the Y2K software upgrade] are not found by 2000 and if we can't cope with outages, we'll go back to control procedures to ensure aircraft separation."
However, procedural separation critically requires the use of telephones to hand over information. If the telephone system goes down, there is a standby system, "but it is so little used that we'll have to retrain staff on how to use it". Eurocontrol has therefore advised ATC units to pay "special attention" to the potential for communications problems, Blume adds.
Tests on the Maastricht and CFMU systems will be completed by 1999. "We are proposing scenarios and warning people to be ready," says Blume. "Our task is to ensure that states co-ordinate their efforts. We don't fully understand the scale of the problem yet, but we'll know a lot more after the tests have been completed."
Source: Flight International
