Aviation

6.12, air traffic disruption

Brazil: virtually all takeoffs from three major airports in Brazil were cancelled after an air traffic communications system broke down, making it difficult for controllers to communicate with pilots and creating air travel chaos. Takeoffs were prohibited at the airport in the capital of Brasilia and in the large central city of Belo Horizonte. Many takeoffs were also cancelled at the airport in Sao Paulo that handles domestic flights, though the authority allowed flights to continue on the busy Sao Paulo-Rio de Janeiro shuttle route. Authorities were still allowing aircraft to land at the three airports and almost all international flights departing Sao Paulo, Brazil’s largest city, take off from a separate airport unaffected by the government order. But the Belo Horizonte and Brasilia airports also serve some international destinations, and all takeoffs were prohibited from those airports. The problem emerged when a communications system in Brasilia inexplicably broke down, reducing the number of radio frequencies and making it hard for controllers to reach pilots flying commercial jets in some of Brazil’s busiest air traffic corridors. Federal police discounted the possibility of sabotage, saying the problem appeared to be technical and that they would only investigate if asked by Brazil’s military, which runs the air traffic control system in the country.