Australian transport authorities warned travelers Tuesday

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CANBERRA (Reuters)

Australian transport authorities warned travelers Tuesday to avoid taking small planes or boats in remote areas of the globe next weekend because of a pre-millennium navigational bug.

They said travelers could find themselves flying or sailing off-course when a widely used navigation system rolls over from August 19 to 22, with the potential for Y2K-style disruption -- including groundings on the Great Barrier Reef.

Experts fear non-compliant Global Positioning System (GPS) devices could erroneously reset their clocks to January 1980 when their timing systems revert to zero.

"It could potentially be fatal," said Peter Gibson, a spokesman for the Civil Aviation Safety Authority.

"Instead of being where you think you are, you could be 40 kilometers (24 miles) away," he said. "The first you know about it would be 'ka-boom' -- when you fly into a mountain range."

While Australian aircraft were safe, because they must rely on alternative navigation methods, aircraft or boats in other countries may not be, Gibson said.

That concern led the Australian government to issue a rare warning on the dangers of travelling with "smaller overseas airlines."

"It would be prudent for Australian travelers not to travel on smaller overseas airlines in remote locations from August 19 to 24," the Foreign Affairs Department said in a statement.

Such airlines "could be exposed to potential malfunctions or failures during that period."

Between August 19 and 22, the 24 satellites of the Global Positioning System (GPS), which provide navigational data from 17,600 km (11,000 miles) out in space, switch their timing system back to zero.

Experts say that when the rollover, or return to zero, happens, up to 1.5 million of the 10 to 15 million GPS devices in use around the world may be unable to handle it and fail. When the system began operating in January 1980 it was designed to record time for 1,024 weeks.

The possible glitch, dubbed the "end of week bug," promises to be a dress-rehearsal for the millenium bug which may cause some computers to mistake the year 2000 as 1900 come January 1 because of an old programming shortcut.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority, which covers a swathe of the Pacific, Indian and Southern oceans almost the size of Russia, said it was not ringing alarm bells too loudly.

"We're not overly concerned, though there's some concern about old fishing boats or yachtsmen who don't do a lot of maintenance on their boats," said spokesman David Gray.

"If they are only relying on GPS and not navigational charts they might be slightly offcourse. In areas that are tight, like the Barrier Reef areas, they could go aground."

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Ray

-- Ray (ray@totacc.com), August 17, 1999

Answers

Today is the 17th. GPS rolls over in 4 days. Those that have not heard about GPS are now receiving notice of possible trouble.

Will our government publicly give notice on Dec. 27th that there is a computer problem and everyone need to prepare....giving a full 4 days of warning before Y2k?

-- Linda A. (adahi@muhlon.com), August 17, 1999.


Linda, that would be too early. It allows time to fix it.

Perhaps Dec 30, 1999?

-- J (jart5@bellsouth.net), August 17, 1999.


Come on Linda... it will at least be December 26th. So we'll get a whole extra day.

Can't impact those Christmas sales! Retailers make approx. 60% of their sales then. Not to mention the tax base revenues than come out of it all. Collections... now that will be "interesting" in 2000.

Unless something "big" happens, doubt we'll hear much about the GPS glitches.

Fingers-crossed... for few GPS problems... and NO lives lost.

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), August 17, 1999.


I'm in agreement with you Diane! NO LIVES LOST!!!!!

Hope it comes to pass....and not hit!

Interesting times.....

-- J (jart5@bellsouth.net), August 17, 1999.


Please post the link Ray. Thanks.

-- Bingo1 (howe9@pop.shentel.net), August 17, 1999.


Here's the link:

Link

Ray

-- Ray (ray@tottacc.com), August 17, 1999.


My fear is that GPS will be bigger than we think, and that it could be the spark that gets peoples attention. Note that the Federal Y2K effort Officially starts Sept 1.

It will get worse before it gets better.

-- helium (heliumavid@yahoo.com), August 17, 1999.


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