Chaos as radar glitch grounds flights at Sydney Airport

Passengers at Sydney’s domestic airport are being urged to be patient as check-in staff work through long queues after a radar failure grounded flights for four hours on the first day of school holidays.

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PASSENGERS at Sydney’s domestic airport are being urged to be patient as check-in staff work through long queues after a radar failure grounded flights for four hours on the first day of school holidays.

The “air traffic control system failure” hit about 5am, on the first day of the NSW school holidays, resulting in the cancellation of some flights and delaying others.

Power in the traffic systems operations went down with air traffic control having to revert to a slower, manual process for departing flights.

Chaos... Passengers at Domestic Terminal 2 this morning. Picture: AAP/Sallie Don

Waiting game.... Delayed departures at Sydney Airport today. Picture: Twitter/Lexy Hamilton-Smith

Holidaymakers were stranded on the first day of school holidays. Picture: Christian Gilles

So many travellers are feeling the struggle that I'm feeling right now at Sydney Airport. 😴✈👎 #poweroutage #SydneyAirport pic.twitter.com/Fa2u9GiCv4

— Ben (@ItsBenzi) September 24, 2017

Flights are delayed due to an @AirservicesNews system issue. Please check with your airline for flight status. Thanks for your patience.

— Sydney Airport ✈️ (@SydneyAirport) September 24, 2017

Great morning on the tarmac here in Sydney.. Per pilot, still no change to radar status. Departures not allowed. … https://t.co/gU5BNppwjA pic.twitter.com/PFsw3aLtYb

— Helen Palsson (@helenthura) September 24, 2017

The technical glitch was resolved by 9am with the domestic airport “progressively returning to normal operations,” a Sydney Airport spokeswoman confirmed.

“The issue has been addressed but the airport is not at normal capacity. We are working hard to clear the backlog of flights,” Air Services Australia spokeswoman Sarah Fulton said.

Virgin Australia, Qantas and Jetstar asked passengers to check websites and be patient.

Many travellers remained stuck in lines as airline staff worked to clear backlogs.

For David Lethbridge the airport delays came on top of a nightmare battle to get home.

Scheduled to drive from Sydney to Corowa and then onto Melbourne on Sunday he and his wife were forced to turn back by bushfires on the Hume Highway.

The queues at domestic check-in this morning. Picture: Christian Gilles

“So we thought we would get a flight home to Melbourne instead, and now this has happened,” Mr Lethbridge told AAP while waiting in line.

Also caught in the lines was school teacher Trish Robbers, who was heading to Harvey Bay in Queensland for a holiday.

“I already knew about this from the news but my flight still said it was on time until 20 minutes ago,” Ms Robbers said.

Now facing a three-hour delay and a line of passengers 300 metres long, she remains hopeful she will make it by the end of the day.

“My six days may become five ... if I wasn’t on holidays I would be frustrated,” she said.

Earlier on Monday, domestic passengers at the airport tweeted numerous photos of departures boards with flight status’ reading “delayed - due ATC radar failure”.

The Sydney chaos has had knock-on effects for the country and particularly for busy routes like Sydney-Melbourne and Sydney Brisbane.

“If one airport sneezes the others will catch the cold because we’re all interconnected,” a Brisbane Airport Corporation spokeswoman said.

Melbourne Airport also confirmed likely delays throughout the day.