BRIEF CENTER RADAR FAILURE. WHEN RADAR RTES SOME TARGETS APPEARED IN WRONG PLACES SECTORS.

Date: 1996-08

Anomalies: other-unspecified

Synopsis

BRIEF CENTER RADAR FAILURE. WHEN RADAR RTES SOME TARGETS APPEARED IN WRONG PLACES SECTORS.

Narrative

AT XX40 ON AUG/XX/96 I WAS WORKING POTOMAC R04 SECTOR AT ZDC BY MYSELF. I HAD APPROX 8 ACFT IN MY SECTOR; 2 OF WHICH WERE SEPARATED BY ONLY 6 NM WITH SPD ASSIGNMENTS. AT XX41 MY KEYBOARD BECAME INOP AND I COULD NO LONGER USE AUTOMATION FOR HDOFS. SHORTLY THEREAFTER ALL ACFT FROZE ON THE SCOPE AND NO DATA WAS BEING UPDATED; THEREFORE I HAD NO IDEA OF WHERE THE POS OF ACFT MOVED TO. THIS LASTED FOR A MIN. SUPVR ADVISED US TO GO TO DARC (BACKUP RADAR). WHILE PERFORMING CHKS ON THIS DARC IT ALSO WENT DOWN. EVERY SINGLE PIECE OF INFO WAS LOST. NO DISPLAY! VERY DANGEROUS! 15 SECONDS OR SO LATER TARGETS STARTED TO APPEAR 1 AT A TIME ON THE SCOPE. SOME POPPED BACK ON IN THE WRONG PLACE; SOME NEVER CAME BACK. SOME CAME BACK UNDER MY CTL IN OTHER PEOPLE'S AIRSPACE. CALLBACK CONVERSATION WITH RPTR REVEALED THE FOLLOWING INFO: RPTR IS UNAWARE TO WHAT CAUSED EITHER THE NAS AND DARC RADAR FAILURES. RPTR INDICATED THIS IS THE FIRST TIME HE IS AWARE OF THE DARC FAILING. RPTR ALLEGES THAT THE SUPVR TOLD THE CTLRS TO USE NON RADAR PROCS WHEN THE DARC FAILED. RPTR INDICATED THAT TFC SEPARATION WAS ALREADY CLOSER THAN NON RADAR PROCS ALLOW. RPTR IMPLIED THAT WHEN THE DARC ROUTES THE CTLRS INITIALLY REPOSITIONED THE MISALIGNED TARGETS TO THE CORRECT CTL POS.

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