************************************
Following is a question by the Hon Wong Yuk-man and a reply by the Secretary for Transport and Housing, Professor Anthony Cheung Bing-leung, in the Legislative Council today (November 4):
Question:
The Finance Committee of this Council approved in May 2007 a funding of $1,565 million for the Civil Aviation Department (CAD) to procure a new Air Traffic Control System (ATCS). It is learnt that CAD implements the new ATCS through eight major contracts, including the Air Traffic Management System (ATMS) contract. Seven of the eight contracts were generally completed on schedule, but there has been substantial delay in the implementation of the ATMS contract due to a number of software-related problems. As a result, the whole ATCS cannot be commissioned at the end of 2012 as planned. The Public Accounts Committee of this Council published a report on "Administration of the air traffic control and related services" in June this year, urging the Transport and Housing Bureau (THB) to consider engaging external and independent experts immediately to assess the safety and performance of ATMS. On the other hand, it has been reported that the flight data processor broke down during the test of ATMS conducted by CAD at the end of July this year, rendering the whole ATMS inoperable. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the justifications of CAD management for insisting on using the said ATMS, which is plagued with quite a number of software problems; the stance of THB on such approach taken by CAD;
(2) of the circumstances under which CAD will abandon the use of ATMS; and
(3) given that THB has decided to appoint an overseas consultant in respect of ATCS, of the details of the work for which the consultant will be responsible?
Reply:
President,
Hong Kong's status as a global aviation hub is crucial to our economic development and our external connectivity. Ensuring aviation safety has been the topmost priority of the HKSAR Government as far as the planning and operation of air traffic control is concerned. As pointed out by the Chief Secretary for Administration when she presented the Government Minute in response to the Report of the Public Accounts Committee No. 63A last week, the safety and efficacy of the new Air Traffic Control (ATC) system must fulfill the highest standards and must not be compromised in any manner. The Civil Aviation Department (CAD) will ensure the safe, reliable and stable operation of the new ATC system before its commissioning.
My consolidated reply to the question raised by the Hon Wong Yuk-man is as follows:
The aim of installing the new ATC system is to enhance the ability of the Hong Kong International Airport in air traffic management and to ensure its safety and efficiency. The new ATC system is designed according to the latest international standards in respect of ATC systems in technical, operational and safety aspects, as well as the CAD's operational experience in running the existing ATC system. The CAD selected the supplier of the new system through a global tendering exercise, which was fully in compliance with the tendering procedures of the Government. The successful tenderer is a renowned developer of aviation systems, and the particular system that it develops for Hong Kong meets the latest requirements set by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), and is on par with the most advanced international air traffic management technologies. With the latest electronic technologies adopted, including enhanced flight information and data processing capability, advanced automatic safety net features, and more precise flight trajectory prediction functions, the processing capacity and functions of the new system are better than those of the present one. The new system, which can handle 8 000 flight plans daily and can simultaneously monitor 1 500 air or ground targets (5 times and 1.5 times of those of the existing system respectively), is fully capable of coping with traffic growth in the future.
The new ATC system is implemented through a total of eight system contracts, of which seven have been completed and commissioned by phase since 2013.
The remaining contract involves the Air Traffic Management System (ATMS). All the acceptance test events of the new ATMS have been conducted in accordance with the requirements specified in the contract (including Site Acceptance Tests, Flight Check Acceptance Tests, Reliability Acceptance Tests and System Integration Tests). Generally speaking, test results are satisfactory. As to the follow-up items of the new system to be addressed, the CAD, together with the contractor, has come up with a timetable to address the remaining priority items by early next year at the latest.
Meanwhile, the CAD has commenced training for its ATC operational staff on operating the new system since October this year and will carry out relevant shadowing tests starting January next year. The department has also been making an overall safety assessment of the training of ATC operational staff, operational procedures and transition activities of the new system. In view of the current progress, the new ATC system is targeted to be ready for operation in the first half of 2016.
Under the safety-first principle, both the Transport and Housing Bureau (THB) and the CAD have to ensure that the new ATC system complies with very high standards in safety and efficacy. There is definitely no compromise in these aspects.
Monitoring of the safety and efficacy of the new system is to be achieved at three levels. Firstly, the CAD has, in accordance with ICAO's guidelines on aviation safety management, established stringent standards for the new system and conducted comprehensive safety assessment of the system. Secondly, the CAD has, since 2012, engaged an independent consultant from overseas for providing safety assessment of the new system to ensure that the contractor follows international quality standards in the process of system development. Thirdly, to further ensure the safety and efficacy of the new system, the THB, as recommended by the Public Accounts Committee, has already appointed an overseas consultant to advise me of the system readiness and staff readiness of the new system directly and independently.
Finally, I must clarify the claims made in the media report that "the flight data processor broke down during the test of ATMS conducted by CAD at the end of July this year, rendering the whole ATMS inoperable" as mentioned in the question raised by the Hon Wong.
According to the CAD's report, the test(s) referred to in the media report are indeed the one-month long Reliability Acceptance Tests (RAT) commenced on July 13, 2015. The purpose of the RAT is to carry out a series of in-depth tests to verify the reliability performance of various sub-systems of the new system under different operational scenarios. In one of the tests done on July 31, officers of the CAD deliberately inputted abnormal flight information to verify system behaviours under abnormal circumstances. It was noted that, after the Flight Data Processing Systems (FDPS) received the abnormal instructions, the Systems did not execute them, as according to system design. More importantly, the FDPS of the "fallback" and the "ultimate fallback" sub-systems were running normally throughout the whole period of testing. This incident was part of the test process and something anticipated well beforehand. It was surely not a "failure" as reported in the media. To better suit the mode of operation of ATC staff, the CAD, together with the contractor, has completed an enhancement package. After the enhancement, apart from refusing to execute abnormal instructions after their inputting according to the original design, the FDPS will also alert ATC staff that the instructions inputted by them have not been executed, so that ATC staff can rectify their instructions as soon as possible.
Ends/Wednesday, November 4, 2015
Issued at HKT 13:19
NNNN
