Travelers arrive at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3 in Pasay City on Jan. 4, 2023. Passengers affected by technical trouble on Jan. 1 had to reschedule their flights. Jonathan Cellona, ABS-CBN News/File
MANILA — The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) on Thursday apologized anew and took "full accountability" for the massive glitch that paralyzed the country's air traffic on New Year's day.
"We extend our sincerest apologies to all those inconvenienced and greatly affected by this circumstance, which is something we're not proud of. We take full responsibility and accountability to what happened," CAAP director general Manuel Tamayo said during the Senate public services panel hearing on the incident.
Panel chairperson Sen. Grace Poe earlier said CAAP was "almost 100 responsible" for the air traffic fiasco that forced hundreds of flights to be canceled, delayed, or diverted, affecting some 65,000 passengers.
CAAP is responsible for implementing policies on civil aviation to assure safe, economic and efficient air travel in the Philippines.
Tamayo explained that the glitch was due to a "faulty signal coming from a damaged circuit breaker."
The Senate is investigating the incident that bared the supposed "vulnerabilities" of the country's airspace infrastructure system in order to avoid similar incidents in the future.