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Flights In New Zealand Grounded Due To Internal Network Failure

Pilots would have lost all radar communication during an outage that grounded hundreds of flights on Tuesday.

Flights across the country have gradually resumed after fault, which affected the entire country.

At 2:41pm on Tuesday, an “internal network failure” caused all flights to be grounded until about 4pm.

The New Zealand Air Line Pilots’ Association spokeswoman Lisa Williams said pilots flying at the time of the fault would have lost all radar communication.

Pilots would have consulted an emergency procedure manual or aeronautical information publication contained in all cockpits, she said.

Air traffic control would still have been able to communicate with pilots via radio, she said.

“It is an extremely rare event,” she said.

READ MORE: Investigation into radar failure

Were you affected by the outage? Email us photos and information to [email protected]

Airways Corporation, which manages the radar system, said it had now identified the issue and “thoroughly tested the integrity of the system”.

“At no point was the safety of any airport operations compromised,” the company said in a statement.

“Airways apologises to all passengers who have been affected by this outage. Our immediate priority is resolving the situation and we are unavailable for interviews at this stage.”

LAWRENCE SMITH/Stuff.co.nz

Flights were delayed in Auckland after a radar fault in Christchurch.

Airways said around 50 airborne flights had been directly affected by the fault.

“Throughout this outage we had back-up processes in place to deal with this eventuality safely,” Airways said in a statement.

“We did not recommence departures until we were completely confident in the safety of all our systems.”

After the problem was fixed, Auckland Airport tweeted that international flights would depart first with some delays expected.

Transport Minister Simon Bridges said: “I have been assured that at no time was the safety of passengers or planes compromised.”

HUNDREDS OF FLIGHTS DELAYED

KEVIN STENT/Dominion Post

Passengers in Wellington airport have been delayed after a national radar fault grounded airplanes.

Flights out of Auckland Airport were delayed

Air New Zealand said about 160 of its international and domestic flights were disrupted, with passengers likely to experience delays.

“Flights are now departing but the backlog will take some time to clear,” the airline said.

Passengers were asked to check arrivals and departures information at www.airnz.co.nz for up to date information on flight departures.

Jetstar spokesman Phil Boeyen said about six domestic Jetstar flights had been impacted so far with the longest delay at this stage around 90 minutes.

He did not know the exact number of Jetstar passengers affected but said it would be several hundred over six flights.

Chris Yorke landed in Wellington nearly two hours late after his flight from Blenheim was held back during the radar failure.

“We were called to board but then told the boarding was cancelled,” he said.

Yorke and his fellow passengers had to wait 1.5 hours but were lucky it was inside the terminal and not the plane, he said.

When the passengers were told the radar system was down most were understanding, he said.

“You don’t want to be flying when the radar is not working. You’d rather be on the ground.”

stuff.co.nz

Flights across the country were grounded after a fault in the national radar system was discovered.

HORROR RUN

At Christchurch Airport, some flights to Invercargill and Dunedin had resumed by 5pm, but flights to New Plymouth and other towns were cancelled.

Passengers were told to go to reservation desks to arrange accommodation.

Erica and Nogs Karati said it was likely they would be stranded in Christchurch overnight.

The couple had a horror run since returning from Vanuatu at 2am on Tuesday.

They went to the wrong motel on arrival, had a couple of hours sleep, then flew from Auckland to Christchurch only to be told of delays.

Their car was waiting for them at Queenstown Airport, and they faced a couple of hours driving from there to get home to Invercargill – if the roads were clear of snow.

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“There goes another couple hundred of dollars,” Erica Karati said.

“I don’t really think we should go on holidays any more.”

An image from FlightRadar24.com shows New Zealand’s air traffic at 4:37pm.

Two flights – to Auckland and Christchurch – had been cancelled and all others were delayed by at least an hour.

‘THESE THINGS HAPPEN’

Dozens of passengers were stranded at Nelson Airport, many of them on mobile phones trying to make other arrangements or book new flights.

Sue Leov, of Nelson, was already on her flight to Auckland to meet her daughter, who she was travelling with to Phuket, Thailand, on Tuesday night, but was forced to disembark because of the radar fault.

“The plane was warming up and then they said, ‘Sorry, you’re going to have to get off the plane because of the radar’.

“I was a bit worried they were going to cancel our flight because they cancelled a whole lot of other ones.”

Her flight was delayed for more than two hours, boarding shortly after 4:30pm.

Amber Watt and Arron Saunders were waiting with three-month-old daughter Lucy.

They were supposed to be leaving for Wellington at 3:30pm to stay with Watt’s mother, but they were still grounded at 5pm.

“She’s not leaving until she knows we’re definitely not coming today.

She had been told that they should expect a one hour delay, but hadn’t had any news by 5pm.

“I’m not too bothered, though. We’ve both travelled internationally, these things happen. I’d be disappointed if we didn’t get out today.

“I’d be annoyed if we got here and it had been cancelled and we hadn’t been told or it was something within the airline’s control, but it’s not so that’s cool.”

An image from FlightRadar24.com shows New Zealand’s air traffic at 3:50pm.

It was to be Lucy’s first ride in airplane, but she had fallen asleep in Saunders’ arms, not bothered by the delay in the slightest.

‘COMPUTER RESET’

Family First spokesman Bob McCoskrie was on a plane due to depart from Wellington to Auckland just before 3pm when passengers were notified of the problem.

“We got on the plane, the door closed and then there was no action,” he said.

“We were told the computer was being reset because the radars were down and it might take 10 to 15 minutes.”

Passengers were still sitting on the grounded plane at 3.40pm.

Jonathan Carson

Passengers are delayed at Nelson Airport.

‘NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE’

Heather Davis, from Motueka, arrived at Auckland Airport domestic terminal with her daughter and granddaughter at 3.30pm when the air traffic control outage was broadcast over loudspeakers.

Their 4.15pm flight to Nelson was cancelled and they were waiting to rebook.

Oh… all flights grounded from NZ, hope my flight won’t get delayed much… radar outage

— Alan (@Basaka) June 23, 2015

All flights grounded. Good time to fly your drones 😉

— XPD / Gavin (@DemiseNZ) June 23, 2015

Ohh noooo Penny is supposed to be on a plane coming to meet me right now but all flights are grounded 😓

— PINKY FANG (@PINKYFANG) June 23, 2015

Live: NZ flights grounded: http://t.co/PMBBhoCyVK yes…stuck on the tarmac!

All flights grounded due to radar fault. “There is no resolution at this stage.” — There’s your problem right there.

— Ian Witham (@amuletofyendor) June 23, 2015

Auckland Airport should check if the runway lights work and find out if anyone important is set to land at the airport soon #DieHard2

— Jonathan Basile (@jonobasile) June 23, 2015

All commercial flights at Auckland Airport grounded due to radar fault … this is just the beginning #DieHard2

— Jonathan Basile (@jonobasile) June 23, 2015

An Air New Zealand staff member told them the radar outage had never happened before.

Davis said the delay was “slightly annoying, but obviously the air traffic control system is very important and we would rather they got it sorted, so we are happy to wait.”

Source: www.stuff.co.nz

June 23, 2015
Malaysian Court Orders Return Of Allah CDs To Sarawakian Christian

PUTRAJAYA, June 23 ― The Court of Appeal today ordered the Home Ministry to return the eight compact discs containing the word “Allah” to Jill Ireland Lawrence Bill within a month, chalking a win for the Sarawakian Christian after a seven-year legal battle.

“Consequent to our order in affirming relief, we will grant application by applicant that the publication be released within one month,” Datuk Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat, the judge heading the Court of Appeal’s three-man panel, said.

The other judges are Datuk Seri Zakaria Sam and Datuk Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim.

Jill Ireland’s lawyer Lim Heng Seng later confirmed, however, that the government can still apply for a stay of the order to release the CDs.

But Lim said any application for a stay will be contested.

“They can always apply on the grounds they are asking for leave to appeal to the Federal Court and the court will decide whether there are special circumstances to deny Jill Ireland the right to use her CDs.

“She has been denied long enough, since 2008. So it will be contested if they ask for stay. Jill Ireland should be allowed to have her CDs,” he told reporters after the court’s decision, adding that the Melanau native from Sarawak needed the Christian materials for her personal study.

Government lawyer Shamsul Bolhassan confirmed that he will have to wait for instructions on whether to file an appeal.

Rev Dr Justin Wan, the president of SIB Sarawak, expressed hope that the case will finally be settled when the CDs are returned to church member Jill Ireland.

“We will go another round until they complete (it),” he said when asked about the possibility of the government filing an appeal at the Federal Court and again withholding the CDs.

The government had previously applied to keep the CDs despite a High Court defeat and pending the outcome of the appeal today.

On May 11, 2008, the Home Ministry confiscated eight CDs bearing the word “Allah” from Jill Ireland at the Sepang airport upon her return from Indonesia, prompting her to file for judicial review in August the same year against the Home Minister and government of Malaysia.

Last July 21, High Court judge Datuk Zaleha Yusof ruled that the Home Ministry was wrong to detain the CDs based on a point of law, also ordering the government to return the CDs and pay RM5,000 in legal costs.

But the Home Ministry appealed on July 22 against the ruling, while Jill Ireland filed an appeal on August 18 as the High Court did not address constitutional issues that were raised in her judicial review application.

Jill Ireland had sought declarations that it is her constitutional right to import publications in the practice of Christianity and that she is entitled to use the word “Allah”, among other matters.

Source: www.themalaymailonline.com

June 23, 2015
Pelakon Putri Mardiana Dan Pasangan, Sharizan Abdullah, Mengaku Tidak Bersalah Atas Tuduhan Berkhalwat

Petaling Jaya – Pelakon Putri Mardiana dan pasangannya, Shahrizan Abdullah mengaku tidak bersalah atas tuduhan berkhalwat yang dikenakan terhadap mereka.

Kedua-dua pasangan itu masing-masing dikenakan bon jaminan sebanyak RM1,500 oleh Mahkamah Rendah Syariah Gombak Timur di sini pada Selasa.

Hakim Syarie, Shaiful Azli Jamaluddin menetapkan 25 Ogos depan sebagai sebutan semula kes bagi membolehkan pasangan itu melantik peguam untuk mewakili mereka.

Menurut laporan media sebelum ini, Putri Mardiana, 34, dan Shahrizan, 31, telah ditahan di sebuah premis kediaman di Ukay Perdana, Hulu Klang berdasarkan aduan awam kepada Bahagian Penguatkuasaan Jabatan Agama Islam Selangor (Jais) pada 14 Disember tahun lalu.

Mereka ditahan mengikut seksyen 29 (1) A dan B Enakmen Jenayah Syariah Selangor 1995 dan jika disabitkan kesalahan pasangan berkenaan boleh dikenakan denda tidak melebihi RM3,000 atau dipenjarakan selama tempoh tidak melebihi dua tahun atau kedua-duanya sekali.

Bagaimanapun Putri Mardiana atau lebih mesra dengan sapaan Nina dalam satu kenyataan kepada mStar Online bertarikh 17 Disember 2014 memberitahu kes berkenaan tidak akan dibawa ke mahkamah atas sebab-sebab tidak dijelaskan selain mendakwa mereka tidak bersalah.

Pelakon itu mendakwa serbuan tersebut sengaja dirancang oleh bekas teman lelakinya dan bekas isteri Shahrizan dengan tujuan untuk memalukannya.

Source: http://www.kualalumpurpost.net

June 23, 2015
Pasir Ris One DBSS – Yet Another Development Under Fire

In what is becoming a recurring series of incidents, another group of homeowners of new flats are crying foul at the shoddy workmanship and design of their homes.

The Online Citizen (TOC) understands that some of the owners of the new Pasir Ris ONE have just received their keys to their new homes which are located at the junction of Pasir Ris Central and Pasir Ris Drive 1, a stone’s throw away from the Pasir Ris MRT station.

The 447-unit development is one under the Design, Build and Sell Scheme (DBSS), and consists of three-, four- and five-room flats.

The purchase prices of these homes are reported to be between S$390,000 to S$470,000 for 3-room flats, and S$550,000 to S$670,000 for 4-rooms. (See here.)

The Pasir Ris ONE website lists the prices for 5-rooms as follow:

DBSS flats are supposed to come with better finishings and design, as buyers pay a premium for them.

However, since owners had entry to their homes the last few months, it has emerged that the workmanship has left a lot to be desired.

For a start, the corridors of the flats are so narrow that two persons can hardly walk side by side.

When TOC measured the corridor of one block, it was precisely 1.2m wide.

This is believed to be the minimum required by HDB and the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) safety rules.

According to the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) website:

It is also worth noting that in a parliamentary reply in 2013 to a question of ensuring “clear passages along common corridors of HDB flats”, the Ministry of National Development said it was revising the clearance required from 1.2m to 1.5m, to provide for safety and rescue purposes.

“To prepare for an ageing population and to provide wider access routes for people using mobility aids, BCA announced revisions to the Code on Accessibility last month.

“The revisions include a wider minimum clearance width of 1.5m along corridors for buildings with plans submitted for regulatory approval on or after 1 Apr 2014.”

Some of the gates at the main doors of opposite flats along the corridors are so close together that the gates almost touch each other when they are swung open.

It is thus unclear how the homeowners of the Pasir Ris ONE flats would have the requisite allowable and safety space in their corridors if they were to, for example, place a shoe rack or a bicycle outside their main doors.

Another curious placement issue is the way the gas vents have been installed on the ceilings along the corridors.

Besides its questionable aesthetic design, is there also a safety issue here if an incident of leakage or fire should happen, especially with the narrow corridors?

Besides safety, there are also concerns of security with how the flats are designed.

Burglars or others with ill intention could gain easy entry into their homes through the air-conditioner ledges, for example, and enter the flats though the windows.

Here is how it looks like, outside a ground floor flat:

Here is another view:

It would not be too hard for someone to climb to the upper floors through these balconies.

And for some unknown reasons, TOC understands that the owners cannot make use of the entire ledge, although the floor area of the ledge is included as part of the size of the flat.

And even over at the community barbeque pits, the design also came under fire, as one resident posted on the Pasir Ris ONE Facebook page on 4 June:

TOC measured the height of the pit and it was about 1.3m high – from the ground to where the wire mesh would be. This would make it hard for anyone who is below, say, 1.7m to manage the barbeque.

This writer – who is 1.7m tall – is pictured here at the pit:

When it comes to drying the laundry, the clothes rack isn’t something to crow about either.

The rack is so small it can hardly dry any clothes; and also, the sun is blocked by the ledge above the rack which is presumably to prevent litter from the upper floors from reaching the lower ones.

These would make drying your laundry quite a challenge.

These are some issues which residents have with the external surroundings of the flats.

What about the insides?

Not much better.

TOC understands that owners face many defects which need to be rectified.

These include tiles in the living room which were either scratched, or have different shades of colour, or the groutings were poorly finished, while others have uneven flooring which need to be corrected.

Some of the grilles at the balcony were also badly painted, and others had leaky pipes in the kitchen.

The placement of the water heater in their kitchens is also another issue.

When it is turned on, the heater can become a safety hazard, and it also contributes to warming up the kitchen when cooking is also in process because of the inefficient ventilation design.

In the bedrooms, there were more defects – there were windows which took some effort to open, and toilet and shower doors were designed such that one has to close one in order to have enough space to open the other.

And then there were the cracked tiles and poor grouting work.

Some bedroom doors were also faulty, leaving big gaps between the door and the floor. There were also faulty window screws, window frames, door handles, chipped doors, bad wiring, dirty toilet bowls, and poorly installed floor tiles, among many other complaints.

Some have complained that the master room, which is 15sqm, is so small it can barely fit a king-sized bed, leaving scarce room to walk.

According to HDB rules, homeowners have one year to inform the developer of any defects.

Pasir Ris ONE is a joint project between Sing Haiyi Group and Kay Lim Holdings.

Homeowners have since created a private Facebook group to highlight the flaws in their homes.

Such problems in new developments have been reported by new owners of other DBSS flats at the Trivelis in Clementi and Centrale 8 in Tampines in the last two months, along with several other groups of owners of build-to-order flats, such as in Punggol and Bukit Panjang, in the last few years.

In its response to all these, the HDB said earlier in June that the defects were merely “surface imperfections.”

“This is due mainly to the inherent features of natural materials or the nature of construction works that are dependent on manual labour,” a HDB spokesman said.

Source: www.theonlinecitizen.com

June 23, 2015
End The Slur On LGBT People And Their Allies

The annual Pink Dot event has put Singapore on the map for the right reasons (“LGBT rally forms sea of pink at Hong Lim Park”; June 13, online).

It has become a beacon of hope for many who feel alone and victimised because of who they are, so much so that it has been replicated in places such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and the United States.

Of late, unfortunately, the lead-up to Pink Dot, an event emphasising tolerance, respect and love, has been marred by vitriol directed at the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) community and their allies.

Hatemongers have created platforms on social media from which they hurl their slurs. Offline, some have used the pulpit to launch attacks against LGBT people and their supporters.

Many, including those who had been neutral in the issue, have felt compelled to speak out against this bigotry. But the silence of the authorities, who have intervened in racial, religious or gender discrimination, is puzzling.

Replacing the word “LGBT” in this hateful commentary with an ethnic group or religious affiliation would render the remarks seditious.

Replacing “gay” or “lesbian” with a reference to a gender, age group, social class or the disabled would not sit well with civic-minded Singaporeans.

The authorities and our politicians must not practise double standards, but be bold to speak up against such speech. Silence emboldens bigots and would mean complicity in the hate campaign.

This is not about supporting LGBT people but about supporting a society where everyone is treated with dignity and about creating a safe society, where discourse is civil.

Will our leaders respond to protect the secular space in Singapore and signal that such actions are unacceptable?

This article, written by Angeline Wong Hu Wei, first appeared on Voices, Today, on 22 Jun 2015

Source: www.todayonline.com

June 23, 2015