[SystemSafety] power failure at Belgocontrol

[Gergely Buday]

sorry, missed an important technical part:

The power cut was due to an overvoltage, which also damaged emergency
generator switches. "Normally, the generators should take over, but
because the excess current broke the control switches, this was
rendered impossible. It was like Murphy's law", said Mr Dehaene.

The defect caused all control towers to fall short of electricity. The
cause of the overvoltage itself, however, is yet to be found.

On 27 May 2015 at 20:51, Gergely Buday <gbuday at gmail.com> wrote:
> From the news:
>
> ---
>
> What happened this morning?
>
> At 9:45AM, power went down at Belgocontrol. Flights preparing for
> landing at that very moment were still allowed to ground on the strip.
> All other flights were redirected to airports in neighbouring
> countries. Emergency generator switches malfunctioned as well, leaving
> control towers completely out of electricity. “After that, we
> proceeded to a ‘clear the sky’ operation”, explained Belgocontrol
> spokesperson Dominique Dehaene.
>
> A grounded airplane at Brussels Airport
>
> The power outage temporarily shut down all air traffic in the country.
> However, fly-overs at 24,500 feet or higher were still allowed, since
> they are not a Belgocontrol responsibility.
>
> Eurocontrol declared that air traffic would be down for an indefinite
> amount of time. Airports all over Belgium were dealing with a
> significant number of delays. By now, most of the planes still in the
> air have been redirected to airports in neighbouring countries.
>
> ---
>
> http://deredactie.be/cm/vrtnieuws.english/News/1.2351961