We always have to be ready for the unexpected. Six days into my role as Area Control Centre Chief in August 1995, a lightning strike shut down our air traffic control system. We were in the midst of upgrading to a new radar and display system, but there’d been delays. So the “great controller” above decided to speed things up. When the lightning struck, we lost our eyes in the sky and a bulk of our communications capabilities. We couldn’t see or talk to the planes.
It was also raining cats and dogs, which didn’t help at all. This was when our training kicked in. To separate the planes by level and position, we turned to our old friends, pen and paper, which had served us well at Paya Lebar Airport. We also needed extra hands on deck. Our off-duty guys responded, no questions asked. It was a wonderful display of teamwork and resilience.
Even though two of Singapore’s major airline crashes occurred outside our local airspace, we were still very much involved. I was Chief Air Traffic Control Officer in December 1997 when SilkAir flight MI185 crashed into the Musi River in Sumatra, Indonesia. In fact, I was in Kuala Lumpur for work and had to return to Singapore immediately. Then Singapore Airlines flight SQ006 crashed in October 2000 in Taiwan, on my last day at work, when I was set to retire. I cancelled my retirement while I worked with the investigators. Once again, we got through it, and learnt from our experiences.