Skyguide handled June blackout ‘appropriately’

A total of 77 flights were cancelled and 17 planes were re-routed to neighbouring countries on June 15 Keystone/gaetan Bally

The decision by Swiss air traffic control system Skyguide to close Swiss airspace for five hours earlier this year following a technical malfunction was appropriate, an external investigation has concluded.

Skyguide’s crisis management had worked well, the transport ministry said in a statementExternal link on Monday.

Early on June 15 a technical problem with the air traffic control system halted take-offs and landings at Swiss airports. Flights resumed from Zurich and Geneva from 8:30am.

“The decision to close Switzerland’s airspace was appropriate as it was not possible to predict the severity of the disruption or how long it would take to resolve,” the transport ministry concluded on Monday.

The investigation also highlighted the fact that Skyguide carried out a detailed internal review of the incident and that the points and recommendations identified in this were valid and useful.

The independent investigation confirmed that the malfunction was caused by a defect in a network switch. The network component did not have the latest version of software. “It is possible that the incident of June 15, 2022, could have been prevented by updating the software earlier,” the ministry said.

Skyguide also lacked end-to-end network monitoring, which could have contributed to a more efficient analysis of the error on June 15 and thus possibly led to a faster rectification of the malfunction, it added.

A total of 77 flights were cancelled and 17 planes were re-routed to neighbouring countries. At no time was the safety of passengers threatened, Alex Bristol, director of Skyguide, told Swiss public radio, RTS, at the time.