Today, Friday 16 October, the air traffic was reduced throughout Italy for one series of anomalies in data transmission. This was directly confirmed by ENAV, the National Agency for Flight Assistance, which informed that during this night «there were anomalies on the geographical data transmission network to support the services of air traffic control throughout the national territory.”
The causes of the problem have not yet been made known: ENAV, however, is carrying out technical checks that they have identified the origin of the anomaliesworking to restore systems to full operation.
In any case, it was excluding clearly that the problems can be traced back to malicious activity: no hacker attackstherefore, nor sabotage attempts against national air traffic control systems.
Until 06:00 this morning, ENAV has guaranteed there regular air traffic managementwithout any reduction in operational capacity, thanks to the activation of the foreseen contingency systems.
However, given the progressive increase in air traffic and the persistence of anomalies, after 06:00 ENAV chose to introduce flow regulation measures, with a temporary reduction of the ability to management of aircraft in Italian airspace. The objective, in fact, is to continue to guarantee maximum safety of operations.
At the moment, in the main Italian airports such as Milan Malpensa, Orio al Serio in Bergamo, Turin-Caselle, Fiumicino and Ciampino, cancellations and delays of at least 180 minutes. At Malpensa, in particular, the Lombardy Airports Association confirmed that “there are no take-offs in progress, but only intercontinental arrivals”.
Meanwhile, these days in Italy it is underway the NATO nuclear exercise Steadfast Noon, which also involves Italian airspace. The program is concentrated in four days: October 13th, October 14, October 16th And October 20thwith the airspace above the military bases of Ghedi (Brescia), Aviano (Pordenone), Amendola (Foggia) and Gioia del Colle (Bari) which should be considered as a temporarily reserved area during the exercise. Anomalies, therefore, could potentially impact on the exercise activities of the Atlantic Alliance.
