Airport left
in a vacuum
AIRPORT--With no communication, no telephone, fax, Internet or check-in system, Princess Juliana International Airport (PJIA) was left in a vacuum Sunday. The result: long check-in lines, delayed flights and overall chaos.
PJIA was the victim of a double whammy over the weekend. First there was the outage of telephone and fax lines because of a burnt switch of telecommunication company TelEm. The burnt switch was caused by a power outage and related power surge of utility company GEBE Saturday night.
Then early Sunday afternoon, a busy time with many aircraft movements and scores of passengers having to check in, the international fibre optic cable ARCOS malfunctioned. This meant no SITA system to check in and board passengers.
Hundreds of passengers were seen standing in long lines in the check-in area. Passengers had to be checked in manually because the SITA system was down. Almost all flights left late, including those of American Airlines, Air France, Delta and KLM. Especially passengers with connecting flights abroad inconvenienced.
Handling agents and airlines had to find creative ways to transmit vital documents such as passenger manifests, flight plans and fuel releases. Some sent staff over to the French side or other parts of the island that had telephone service to fax the documents to the airlines and airports abroad. One airline physically sent over flight plans with one of its aircraft.
There were frantic calls on cellular phones from handling agents from airport towers, airlines and agents abroad who had no clue what was happening and why they couldn’t get in contact with PJIA. However, cellular phones were only of limited help, as they don’t work well in the new terminal building.
“It was very hectic, but everybody did an outstanding job. There was true team work,” said an official of the largest handling agent Arrindell Aviation Services. The official praised the workers and said everybody had worked very hard to get the flights out as soon as possible. The official said passengers in general were very understanding.
Sunday’s incident left many wondering if PJIA’s new US $87 million terminal building had a backup telecommunication system. Management of PJIA’s operating company PJIAE was not available for comment.
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