"The AutoTrack III radar system was undergoing test around 11.44 AM, during which it was to be switched on to safety mode and then revived to normal mode. But the system failed to revive as expected, so the system had to be put on AutoTrack II radar system, which is used as back up," sources said.
The situation remained so for about an hour and it was finally revived after rebooting of the system, they said, adding some of the flights were delayed due to this.
The Airports Authority of India (AAI), which operates and maintains the radar system, said that one of their Flight Data Processing Systems (FDPS) went down. However, it claimed that operations went on without disruptions on the back-up system.
"One of the FDPS went down around 11.40AM, since our system functions on multi-system, soon the operations were shifted to secondary system. There was no effect on the flight operations and it went without disruptions," an AAI Spokesman said.
In 2010, the radar had failed twice in January and July while it was being tested.
