15 year anniversary on 27 April 2010.
It was a rather cool and misty April night in 1995 when I found myself driving to EUROCONTROL at an hour normally reserved for rest and retrospection. The time was just past 9 p.m. when the duty supervisor of the Integrated Initial Flight Plan Processing System (IFPS) let me in… security was very different back then.
We walked to the operations room in silence but very much aware that something big was about to happen. Members of the C-watch were looking at their computer screens, technicians were making final checks but in general this was all more for passing the time until midnight GMT than anything essential. The system was ready to go. As a member of the IFPS Project Tem, I knew it was ready…
And then it happened. 2 seconds after midnight the flight plan of a HS25, registration HB-VLF, passed through the IFPS system, becoming the first individual flight plan treated in live operations. In Item 18 that FPL carried a unique remark. It said: RMK/HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO 1ST IFPS “LIVE” FLT PLAN.
A long and arduous development road was behind that fleeting moment, a European success that few other projects had equaled before or hence.
Other than C-watch and me, nobody came by, so we celebrated alone. A copy of that first flight plan has been among my most cherished possessions ever since.
Next year April 27 00.02z will mark the 15 year anniversary of this unique event. I hope that the members of C-watch, wherever they are, will all be celebrating in good health and great spirits. Hopefully others will also remember the anniversary!
Hey Steve, I recognise all of those signatures! :))
I hope they are all fine and happy! It was a very nice and enthusiastic crew.
Any of them still working there?
…..one in Training ,one still correcting Flightplans, one back in Sweden and one is still present….
Thank you for this information. I wish them all the very best!