THE Transport Ministry has formed a committee to determine what caused the four-day network failure at Kuala Lumpur International  Airport, said Minister Anthony Loke.

He said the six-man committee will establish why the Total Airport Management System (TAMS) had crashed, resulting in long queues and flight delays at the country’s main air hub.

“The committee will also suggest steps to improve the service and ensure the incident does not occur again in the future,” said Loke in a statement today.

He said the committee had a month to come up with its recommendations.

The committee will be chaired by ministry Secretary-General  Mohd Khairul Adib Abdul Rahman, Malaysian Aviation Commission executive chairman Dr Nungsari Ahmad Radhi, Mavcom  commissioner Long See Wool, Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia member Afzal Abdul Rahim, CAAM chief executive officer Ahmad Nizar Zolfakar and National Cyber Security Agency chief executive Md Shah Nuri Md Zain.

The network failure affected the flight information display system, check-in counters, baggage handling system and Wi-Fi connection, as well as the credit card system at the airport’s retail outlets and eateries.

The technical issue is reportedly the first-ever major complaint at KLIA since it opened in June 1998.

Previous disruptions to operations were due to power failure. The hub saw a total blackout and flight delays in September 2003.

Meanwhile, Bernama reported that Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) has not ruled out the possibility that the recent disruption was caused by “an act of malicious intent”.

“We will leave it to the authorities to conduct a full investigation into the matter,” said the airport operator in a statement today.

It said the KLIA network is “stabilising well”.

Despite the disruption over the last few days, it said, KLIA’s security aspects have always been “intact”, thanks to the cooperation rendered by the Immigration Department and police.

“We would like to take this opportunity to once again express our sincere gratitude to our airline and agency stakeholders for coming together and providing the best fallback solutions.”

MAHB shares on Bursa Malaysia closed seven sen lower at RM8.56 today, with 1.83 million units changing hands. – August 26, 2019.