System failure, long queue at Hong Kong airport, trade union: new employees lack experience
Civil Aviation Resource Network News on March 17, 2023: According to Hong Kong media reports, the computer system of Hong Kong International Airport failed yesterday (16th), and the check-in process in sections A to E of the departure hall was affected, causing a large number of passengers to fail to board the plane.
The Hong Kong Airport Authority explained that it was because "the signal of the backup computer was unstable when the network system was performing a rehearsal". Fang Baoqiao, honorary president of the Hong Kong Information Technology Chamber of Commerce, believes that all system tests must be risky. The AA has long known that it will test sections A to E, and should arrange the relevant flow of people to other counters in advance, so that the accident will not affect the entire system. Operation stopped. Airport Frangible Flange suppliers,Solar Low Intensity Type A factory,low price Airport Frangible Flange,low price Threshold wing-bar light,low intensity light type A factory.
Li Yongfu, chairman of the Hong Kong Civil Aviation Workers Union, said that there were flight delays starting at 6:00 am yesterday, and staff were still processing them until 11:00 am. I heard that the Airport Authority has conducted drills on system failures. The airport has not manually registered passengers for a long time. New employees need to receive training in real time, which makes the situation chaotic.
Fang Baoqiao was interviewed by Radio Television Hong Kong and pointed out that the network infrastructure is a system connected to the data network. The AA suddenly restarts the system during the operation of the airport, which will make it unable to operate for a period of time.
He also pointed out that if there is a problem with the hardware, it is not ruled out that the whole set of hardware needs to be replaced, but it will take time to replace the system on site. Can the site be replaced by another network, and even consider using two networks together. Therefore, in addition to supporting facilities and procedures, hardware also needs to be replaced. Think about it.
Li Yongfu, chairman of the Hong Kong Civil Aviation Workers Union, said in the same program that it was notified at 6:00 a.m. yesterday that the flight would be delayed due to system problems, and the staff were still dealing with it until 11:00 a.m. There was no statistics on how many passengers were actually affected. , but many flights are affected.
He said that yesterday, it was necessary to manually handle the check-in procedures for passengers, and to use other methods to check the information. It was also necessary to manually input information for passengers, which prolongs the entire process. The airport has not manually registered passengers for a long time. Most of the old employees who used to handle them have left their jobs, and the newly hired employees have not experienced this.
Li Yongfu said that some airlines changed their tickets for free because some passengers who needed to transfer could not get on the original flight, and because the original flight was full, they needed to spend extra money to deal with the aftermath of some delayed flights. Accumulated passengers, the whole situation did not end until the afternoon.
Chairman of the Legislative Council's Traffic Affairs Committee, Chen Hengbin, pointed out that when an accident occurs, it should automatically switch to the backup system, but when switching to use, hardware support is needed. There is a problem with the switch this time and the system needs to be restarted. He thinks that the main system and the backup system need to be hardware, requires another system support.
He believed that the AA only felt that only a few flights were affected, and the system was being restarted. They did not notice that the time of the accident was the peak period, so they did not take the initiative to announce it. However, passengers would feel panicked at that time, and many passengers may need to transfer. If they miss Flights, and all subsequent itineraries will be affected. He also pointed out that the AA’s notification arrangement did not predict the impact on passengers, and hoped to learn from experience in the future, and should take the initiative to report relevant situations in the future and inform passengers of the facts.
He believes that this is an isolated incident, and it does not happen frequently for a long time. He believes that it will not have a great impact on the image of the airport. However, the problems in the system and the contingency measures taken are a warning signal, and he hopes that the AA will take them seriously.