Airports forced to process passengers manually

The Commonwealth Ports Authority on Saipan yesterday lost contact with its sister airports on Rota and Tinian, and along with customs and security agencies aimed to continue normal operations after the CNMI-wide network outage forced some airlines to cancel flights and left others to process passenger manually.

As of press time yesterday, CPA said Delta Airlines and Cape Air/United had cancelled their flights.

CPA said Asiana Airlines and Jeju Air flights were ongoing.

A woman helps Asian Airlines general manager Syungnum Park get a signal as he makes a satellite phone call off-island at the Francisco C. Ada-Saipan International Airport. (Dennis B. Chan)

However, it’s unclear how flight statuses have changed due to weather conditions from the approaching Typhoon Nangka, as of press time yesterday.

Flights would be facilitated “manually,” Commonwealth Ports Authority director Maryann Lizama.

She said they were partnering with Transportation Security Authority, Customs and Border Protection, and airline companies to manually process passengers.

“It’s going to be a slow and tedious process,” she said. “It’s going back old school to do things manually.”

Lizama said communication between the seaports were fine, as vessel traffic controllers used radio frequencies.

Air Traffic Control towers were operating as they also use radio.

However, she said, they could not communicate with Rota and Tinian airports as off press time yesterday.

“We’re basically blocked out from the outside world,” she said.

Lizama also said Star Marianas continued operations.

Asianas Airlines general manager Syungnum Park was spotted at the Francisco C. Ada-Saipan International Airport trying to contact off-island headquarters with a satellite phone yesterday.

Park called the network outage a “very serious problem.” “But we still have flights that need to come here, so we are going to be manually checking,” he said.

Airline officials from the different airlines met with IT&E yesterday morning.

The repair of the damaged fiber optic cable responsible for Internet, wireless, and long-distance service is expected to take weeks.

Byoung Wook, who was waiting at the airport with his wife and child, said they could not reach contacts in South Korea yesterday.

“Fortunately yesterday, I contacted my family,” he said.

Passengers feel initial impact of ‘offline’ system

Passengers of a Cape Air flight scheduled to fly at 4:15am yesterday felt the initial impact of a downed system, which affected the whole of Saipan.

According to IT&E, the largest service provider on the island, a damaged submarine fiber optic cable was detected at 2am yesterday, which affected all businesses that rely heavily on the online platform.

A passenger, who requested anonymity, said she and other passengers of the 4:15am flight were informed at around 3am that there was a “glitch” in the system which has caused a slight delay in the check-in counters.

The counter was supposed to open at around 2:30am.

At around 5am, passengers were told that the ground staff will conduct a manual checking instead of online because of the glitch.

The staff then proceeded to collect the passports of the passengers and use a satellite phone to check them in one by one, the passenger, who was bound to the Philippines, said.

The manual checking was completed at around 9am, which was followed by a final security check and issuance of the boarding passes.

But the passengers were eventually told that the flight was canceled causing some of the passengers to become irate, the passenger said.

Aside from the Philippine-bound passengers, among those affected by the canceled flight include a handful of tourist on a connecting flight, a local who was supposed to fly out on a medical referral, and some sailors who were forced to stay on Saipan at their own expense.

Cape Air did offer token assistance, the passenger said, in the form of meal vouchers, but no other financial assistance was given to those who were delayed or stranded.

The passenger said they were not told as to when the flights will resume, and instead, Cape Air promised to inform them as soon as flights become available. (With reports from Joel Pinaroc)