MANILA: Tens of thousands of travellers were stranded at a Philippine airport on Sunday after a power outage knocked out communication and radar equipment at the country’s busiest hub in Manila, forcing at least 360 flights to be cancelled, delayed or diverted.

Aviation authorities detec­ted a “technical issue” on Sunday morning involving the air traffic management centre at Manila’s domestic and international airport.

More than 360 flights in and out of Manila were cancelled, diverted or delayed, affecting around 56,000 passengers.

There were chaotic scenes at check-in counters across the country as thousands of people tried to re-book tickets or find when their flights might take off. Others who had boarded their aircraft before the glitch was announced waited for hours and were then disembarked.

Transportation Secretary Jaime Baut­ista said the air traffic management centre, which controls inbound and outbound flights, “went down” due to a power outage that resulted in the loss of communication, radio, radar and internet.

“The secondary problem was the power surge due to the power outage which affe­cted the equipment,” he said.

Stranded travellers were outraged and annoyed by the malfunction.

Tycoon Manny Pangilinan tweeted he had been flying from Tokyo to Manila when the plane was diverted to Haneda due to “radar and navigation facilities” going down. “Six hours of useless flying but inconvenience to travellers and losses to tourism and business are horrendous. Only in the PH. Sigh,” Pangilinan stated.

Published in Dawn, January 2nd, 2023