Air traffic control system malfunction causes delays at 5 airports

A malfunction in the Tokyo-area air traffic control system caused five major Japanese airports to experience delays on 3 March 2009. The problem began at 1000 local time, when the data-processing system could not send flight data to other air traffic control systems; manual operations were implemented, and operations returned to normal more than an hour later. Airports that were directly affected by the hour long delay were Narita International Airport in Tokyo, Haneda Airport, which is also known as Tokyo International Airport, Osaka International Airport, Kansai International Airport and Fukuoka Airport.