Probe into airways radar crisis

About 160 Air New Zealand and seven Jetstar flights were affected and all outbound flights were ceased at 2.41pm. Photo / Warren Buckland

Operations at Hawke's Bay Airport were back to normal yesterday after Tuesday's nationwide disruptions when a radar fault grounded planes across the country.

The Transport Accident Investigation Commission said it would launch its own investigation into the Airways New Zealand radar issue, which left hundreds of passengers stranded at airports, including in Hawke's Bay. About 20 Air New Zealand domestic routes were suspended during the incident.

There were still delays to some regional services yesterday, which Airways said was caused by an internal network outage. TAIC said it had opened an inquiry into the incident.

But Hawke's Bay Airport chief executive Nick Story said all systems were working normally at the airport yesterday. "There have been no disruptions to our services," Mr Story said late yesterday afternoon.

TAIC said it expected the inquiry to take 18 months, although it had the ability to issue safety recommendations at any time, should the need arise. A spokesman said the purpose of the inquiry would be to identify the circumstances and causes of the incident, to help reduce the possibility of a recurrence. About 160 Air New Zealand and seven Jetstar flights were affected, when all outbound flights were ceased at 2.41pm.

When Airways announced the fault, 50 airborne passenger planes were still able to land or continue into international airspace. Airways did not reveal details of what caused the outage, which is now being investigated by the Civil Aviation Authority. "We are now carrying out an extensive investigation to determine the root cause and ensure this failure doesn't happen again," an Airways spokeswoman said.

She said a team of three investigators had begun gathering initial evidence, and they were working alongside the Airways Corporation and Civil Aviation Authority. The Civil Aviation Authority also confirmed it would be launching its own investigation into the incident. A spokesman said a safety investigation would be launched, focusing on identifying the cause or causes of the incident.