Radar Woes Slow Bay Area Flights
Air traffic in the San Francisco Bay Area slowed slightly Wednesday evening when a radar system malfunctioned for the second time in two hours, officials said.
The Airport Surveillance Radar System at the Oakland airport lost its microwave data communication link at 6:34 p.m., said Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Hank Verbais, reached by phone in Los Angeles.
The Airport Surveillance Radar System, also known as the Bay approach, takes raw radar data and microwaves it a 1 1/2 miles to the Oakland airport’s control tower, where it is translated into radar displays for air traffic controllers.
When the outage occurred, the system automatically switched to an identical facility across San Francisco Bay at Moffett Field Naval Air Station. The two systems normally operate simultaneously, providing redundant total radar coverage for the entire Bay area, Verbais said.
With the Oakland link gone, the Moffett Field system was able to provide 85% coverage.
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