Another Brazilian Air Traffic Control Meltdown

Brazil's troubled air traffic control system failed again, stranding travelers over the weekend 17 to 19 March. A control center in Brasilia that monitors flights through the nation's populous southeast region had suffered a communications equipment failure. There was also a power failure at the airport in Brazil that made matters worse. Weather in the shape of heavy rain also contributed to the hold-ups. The ATC system crumped initially because of a software problem. That caused manual handling of air traffic via flight strips. President da Silva exhorted his cabinet to put in place reliable and redundant systems that could help zero out the nation's air travel woes. Passengers were left in aircraft for hours on end and terminals were full of passengers bereft of information. The previous ATC meltdown was caused by air traffic controllers working to rule after the Legacy 600/Gol Air 737 midair collision on 29 Sep 2006.