MULTIPLE TPA CTLR RPTS ALLEGE NUMEROUS COMMERCIAL PWR INTERRUPTIONS AT THE FACILITY'S ASR-9 RADAR SITE. RADAR OUTAGES HAVE CAUSED ARR AND DEP DELAYS AND TEMPORARILY RESTR CLASS B SVC. RPTRS CONTEND THAT A UPS SYS AT THE RADAR SITE WOULD INSURE RADAR CONTINUITY UNTIL THE BACKUP ENG GENERATOR COMES ONLINE.

1996-07 · NASA ASRS report 340448

Date: 1996-07

Anomalies: other-unspecified

Synopsis

MULTIPLE TPA CTLR RPTS ALLEGE NUMEROUS COMMERCIAL PWR INTERRUPTIONS AT THE FACILITY'S ASR-9 RADAR SITE. RADAR OUTAGES HAVE CAUSED ARR AND DEP DELAYS AND TEMPORARILY RESTR CLASS B SVC. RPTRS CONTEND THAT A UPS SYS AT THE RADAR SITE WOULD INSURE RADAR CONTINUITY UNTIL THE BACKUP ENG GENERATOR COMES ONLINE.

Narrative

ASR-9 RADAR LOSS. DEPS WERE CANCELED BECAUSE OF RADAR LOSS. RADAR WAS OUT FOR APPROX 25 MINS. REASON FOR OUTAGE IS UNKNOWN TO ME. OVERALL DELAYS TO ACFT ON THE GND UNKNOWN PAST 20 MINS. CALLBACK CONVERSATION WITH RPTR REVEALED THE FOLLOWING INFO: ANALYST UNABLE TO CONTACT RPTRS; BUT DID MAKE CONTACT WITH A FACILITY AND AN AIRWAYS FACILITY PERSON. THE SUPVR CONFIRMED THAT THE FACILITY DOES NOT HAVE AN UNINTERRUPTABLE PWR SUPPLY (UPS) SYS FOR THE RADAR SITE; BUT DOES FOR THE TRACON BUILDING. SUPVR ALSO STATED THAT HE BELIEVED THAT A UCR MAY HAVE BEEN FILED BECAUSE OF THE OUTAGES. THE AIRWAYS FACILITY PERSON STATED THAT UPS SYS ARE SOMETIMES INSTALLED AT RADAR SITES; ESPECIALLY WHEN COMMERCIAL PWR INTERRUPTIONS ARE A PROB. HE CITED ORLANDO AS A FACILITY THAT HAS ONE. NEITHER PERSON KNEW OF ANY PROBS WITH THE ENG GENERATOR AS A BACKUP. SUPPLEMENTAL INFO FROM ACN 340446: AT APPROX XX00 THE NEWLY COMMISSIONED ASR-9 AT TPA SUFFERED A PWR HIT. SINCE THE RADAR DOESN'T HAVE AN UNINTERRUPTABLE PWR SOURCE; WE LOST RADAR FOR A PERIOD OF TIME. SEVERAL ACRS AND OTHER ACFT WERE DELAYED DEPARTING TPA. DELAYING DEPS IS; TO SAY THE LEAST; A MAJOR IRRITANT; BUT MY MAJOR CONCERN IS THE DANGEROUS SITS THAT ARISE FROM LOSSES OF SEPARATION THAT OCCUR ANY TIME THAT AN UNPLANNED TRANSITION FROM A RADAR TO NON RADAR ENVIRONMENT OCCURS. THERE ARE 2 TYPES OF SEPARATION; RADAR AND NON RADAR; IN THE IFR APCH CTL BUSINESS. SOME PEOPLE WILL TELL YOU THAT WHEN THE RADAR GOES OUT THERE IS NO PROB BECAUSE WE REVERT TO NON RADAR SEPARATION. THE PROB IS THAT ALL OF THE AIRPLANES YOU WERE SEPARATING BY 3 MI; DIVERGENCE AND OTHER RADAR TECHNIQUES NOW NEED A WHOLE BUNCH MORE SEPARATION NON RADAR. THEY DON'T HAVE IT; SO I BELIEVE THAT A LOSS OF SEPARATION HAS OCCURRED BTWN MOST OF THE ACFT IN OUR AIRSPACE DURING THE OUTAGE.

Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.

Loading the flight search…

Frequently asked questions

How do I search flights by aircraft type on FlightFinder?

Pick an aircraft model — Boeing 737, Airbus A320, A380, Boeing 787 Dreamliner and more — enter your origin airport, and FlightFinder shows every route that plane flies from there with live fares.

Which aircraft types can I filter by?

We support Boeing 737/747/757/767/777/787, the full Airbus A220/A319/A320/A321/A330/A340/A350/A380 family, Embraer E170/E175/E190/E195, Bombardier CRJ and Dash 8, and the ATR 42/72 turboprops.

Is FlightFinder free to use?

Search and schedules are free. Pro ($4.99/month, $39/year, or $99 one-time lifetime) unlocks the enriched flight card — on-time stats, CO₂ per passenger, amenities, live gate & weather — plus My Trips with push alerts.

Where does the route data come from?

Live schedules come from Amadeus, AeroDataBox and Travelpayouts. Observed routes (which aircraft actually flew a given city pair) are crowdsourced from adsb.lol ADS-B data under the Open Database License.