Thank-you Letter from Croatia

Croatian Air Traffic Controllers Have Expressed Their Gratitude to SMATSA LLC for the Professional and Quick Response.

Thank-you Letter from Croatia

05.08.2014

Serbia and Montenegro Air Traffic Services

SMATSA LLC

Belgrade

5th August, 2014

 

PRESS RELEASE

 

Croatian air traffic controllers have expressed their gratitude to Serbia and Montenegro Air Traffic Services SMATSA LLC for the professional and quick response when SMATSA LLC took over the control of their airspace. The text of the letter delivered to SMATSA LLC reads:

 

Dear colleagues, dear friends!

 

On Wednesday, 30th July, at 13:22 UTC, we experienced the worst and the ugliest incident in a short history of Croatian air traffic control. We experienced a major electrical malfunction of all electricity supply units and as a consequence, we lost the only tools that air traffic controllers need: radar picture and frequency, on almost all positions.

On that, not that busy day and hour in our daily routine, we had 119 overflights and 8 opened sectors! What a surprise, what a shock for well trained and experienced controllers!! Can you imagine?!

Those 35 minutes, until we cleared the sky, or better said, till you, our dear friends, cleared our sky, were, for most of the controllers, in their words, the most shocking and the ugliest minutes in their careers, and most of them have been in the business for over 15 years.

To conclude, we would like you to relay this message to all your members, to all controllers in your facilities, regardless of whether they were present or not on that stressful, but fortunately, not fatal Wednesday afternoon and once again, BIG THANKS TO ALL OF YOU!

 

In the name of all Croatian air traffic controllers,

Sincerely yours,

 

Predsjednica HSSKL-a

Nataša Sumirat Adikusumah

Predsjednik HUKL-a

Željko Oreški

 

On Wednesday, 30th July, 2014, Serbia and Montenegro Air Traffic Services SMATSA LLC took over the control of the upper airspace over the entire territory of the Republic of Croatia and a part of Bosnia and Herzegovina. On that occasion, Mr Radojica Rovčanin, SMATSA LLC CEO, said in his statement to the media in the region that the severe weather conditions had caused the collapse of the entire air traffic control system over Croatia and over 45 per cent of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is under the jurisdiction of that provider, so that SMATSA LLC took over the work.

“Absolutely all the aircraft in the Croatian airspace had no support of the ground navigation aids so other providers rendered assistance. We increased the number of people in the shifts, and a lot of people returned to work. This day has been a true accomplishment. Everything that we had been practicing for years in case of such emergency, which has never been recorded before, proved useful in this particular situation,” said Mr Rovčanin.

SMATSA LLC CEO pointed out that his Croatian colleague had informed him in a telephone conversation that the country was slowly restoring the system to full strength, and emphasized that SMATSA LLC still had increased number of people in the shifts, who are being kept on full alert, and that it had complete control of the situation.

Serbia and Montenegro Air Traffic Services SMATSA LLC provides air traffic control services in the airspace over the Republic of Serbia, the State of Montenegro, in a part of the airspace over the Southern Adriatic Sea, and in 55 per cent of the upper airspace over Bosnia and Herzegovina.