VietNamNet Bridge – Three officials of the Southern Air Traffic Management Company have been suspended from work for 15 days pending an investigation into the technical incident occurring at the Tan Son Nhat Airport on November 20, which caused heavy losses for air carriers.

Many flights were delayed because of the incident on Nov. 20.

On Sunday, November 23, the General Director of the Vietnam Air Traffic Management Corporation – Mr. Dinh Viet Thang – suspended Mr. Tran Cong, deputy director in charge of technical issues, Mr. Le Van Tinh and Mr. Nguyen Quoc Phu, head and vice head respectively of the Technical Center of the Southern Air Traffic Management Company from November 23 until December 8.

Previously, on November 21, the Director of the Southern Air Traffic Management Company decided to suspend two officials – Mr. Le Tri Tinh, chief air traffic controller and Mr. Pham Van Dung, a technician.

Investigators of the Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam (CAAV) are urgently investigating the black-out incident on November 20.

The suspension order followed a power outage at the Tan Son Nhat airport's area control centre in Ho Chi Minh City last Thursday.

The power outage, which took place from 11:05 am to 11:40 am and disabled the radar system controlling air traffic, affected at least 54 flights within the city’s flight information region (FIR) at that time.

Some of these flights had to return to their departure airports or land at nearby airports, while a number of other flights had to be delayed, he stated, adding that economic losses caused by the incident for the aviation sector are yet to be calculated.

The CAAV leader said the initial reason for this incident was the breakdown of all of the centre’s three uninterruptible power supply (UPS) devices. Two of them resumed operation by 15:40 pm the same day, while the remaining has operated normally since midday of November 21.

Hoang Thinh