Polish authorities are investigating Saturday’s failure of the air traffic control system used by the Polish Air Navigation Services Agency (PANSA).
“Officers from the Internal Security Agency are gathering information on the case, analysing it and checking for possible sabotage,” a spokesman for Poland’s Interior Ministry said.
According to PANSA spokesman Marcin Hadaj, a backup system was activated due to the failure. In practice, he said, this meant that fewer aircraft could be in Polish airspace. Nevertheless, all flights arriving in Poland are landing normally, the situation is under full control and flight safety has not been compromised.
Haday specified that only minor restrictions on take-offs from some Polish airports are currently in place. When asked about the possibility of a complete closure of Polish airspace, he answered in the negative. According to him, all foreseen procedures have been applied in case of an emergency and air traffic continues in a safe mode.
Haday also explained that the air traffic control system is the main working tool of air traffic controllers. It allows dispatchers to see in real time the overall picture of what is happening in the skies over Poland. It is equipped with safety measures and backup mechanisms that are automatically activated when needed. According to Haday, there have been no such failures in the air traffic control system recently. However, he noted that various emergency situations affecting the work of air traffic controllers and technical systems happen regularly and the agency has been successful in dealing with them.
Around noon on Saturday, Warsaw’s Chopin Airport reported that takeoff and landing operations had been fully restored and were proceeding without delays. Airport officials recommended that passengers contact their airlines for information about possible delays to specific flights.
According to TVN24, airport spokeswoman Anna Dermont said earlier that due to a glitch in PANSA’s IT systems it was temporarily impossible to take off throughout Poland, but landings were carried out according to established protocols.
Interior Minister Tomasz Siemoniak promptly ordered the involvement of the relevant services, according to ministry spokesman Jacek Dobrzynski. Employees of the Internal Security Agency began collecting and analysing information, including in the context of possible sabotage. Dobrzynski urged to remain calm and not to give in to misinformation and fake news.