From Today's NYTimes:

Computer Snafu Creates Havoc at 3 Airports

"An air traffic control computer on Long Island that is the first of a new generation being installed nationwide failed early Thursday, creating havoc at La Guardia, Newark and Philadelphia Airports...

The failure is another sign that the air traffic control system, long plagued by breakdowns of frail, obsolete equipment, faces more breakdowns with the installation of new hardware and software to replace components that are either not compliant with year 2000 computer standards or are obsolete...

The system that failed yesterday is at the New York Air Route Traffic Control Center, in Ronkonkoma, N.Y., adjacent to MacArthur Airport in Suffolk County. The F.A.A. is installing the same equipment at all 19 other centers, which generally handle longer-distance, higher-altitude planes...

"We haven't had this type of problem with the Hocsr before," said Arlene Salac, the F.A.A. spokeswoman. "Certainly we are concerned about it..."

Henry Brown, an official with the union that represents F.A.A. electronics technicians, said the new system had not been thoroughly checked before it was turned on...

"They rushed this system into service, against our wishes, because they want to say we've got another 40 percent of our equipment Y2K compliant," he said..."

(Hmmmm...)

-- pshannon (pshannon@sangersreview.com), May 07, 1999

Answers

The saga of the FAA over the last 18 months is little short of incredible. How do you explain the media silence?

-- RD. ->H (drherr@erols.com), May 07, 1999.

RD,

Maybe the media is out using up their frequent flyer miles ... this year.

See also ...

More on Ohare's Troubles...

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id= 000nr9

*Sigh Again*

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), May 07, 1999.

"The saga of the FAA over the last 18 months is little short of incredible. How do you explain the media silence?" - RD

No more defeaning than the silence on this topic by people such as Mr. Decker, Poole, et al, that frequent the "Y2K Debunking Board"

Perhaps I can fill in for them; No accidents nothing, what are you worried about. Heck we've got 8, er make that 7, whole months to go, what's the hurry. They're working it out, problems always exist in new software. Anybody that is concerned about Y2K is just a big fat idiot. They can always use manual systems. They only started 18 months ago, see how much progress they've made? You don't hear anything at the other airports, huh, huh, huh?

P.S. loved that "WHOLE airplanes will not fall out of the sky" on the other air tread. Considering insurance company's coverage decisions I'm sure that that will firmly remain in the realm of comedy.

-- Ken Seger (kenseger@earthlink.net), May 09, 1999.

airline computer problems OT?

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-- Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), May 09, 1999.