No Aircraft
Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 17
Workload; Troubleshooting; Time Pressure; Situational Awareness; Human-Machine Interface; Confusion; Distraction; Communication Breakdown
ATC Issue All Types
ATC Equipment / Nav Facility / Buildings; Procedure
FXE experienced a loss of inter-facility land-lines; commercial land lines; internet; and radar. The only thing that worked were the radios and the one and only standard telephone in the tower. The Controllers were forced to use the standard telephone for all coordination with MIA and AOCC. FXE was in ATC Alert status. FXE has STARS which is supposed to be able to use FSL (Full service level) and in the event of an outage; ESL (Emergency service level).  Both were out of service.  The event lasted [for two hours].  This is not the first time this has happened. It happened a few months ago and a few more times in the past 2 years. The inter-facility land-lines; commercial land lines; internet; and radar are all carried over one line through one router. When this one line goes down; all these go down. The router doesn't even have a battery back-up. If there is a power spike and the router resets; the systems go down until the router is back up. STARS is supposed to have redundant system so as to not lose radar. But if they are fed from the same line they all go down.Install a second line for redundancy. At the very least; install a battery back-up for the router.
FXE Controller reports of the facility losing inter facility land lines; commercial land lines; internet and radar for almost two hours.