http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/examiner/archive/1999/12/13/NEWS16006.dtl

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COMPILED FROM EXAMINER STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS Dec. 13, 1999

FAA computer crash

delays SFO flights

San FranciscoA computer that tracks high-altitude aircraft over the western United States and eastern Pacific crashed for about an hour Monday morning, causing departing planes to be held on the ground for a time at San Francisco International Airport.

SFO spokesman Ron Wilson said residual delays because of the computer failure were expected to last much of the morning.

Wilson said the radar at the Federal Aviation Administration's Oakland Center in Fremont went down at 7:20 a.m and was not restored until 8:30 a.m. That meant that flight plans for perhaps as many as 100 airliners had to be re-entered by hand, causing flight delays for departing aircraft.

No airliner already in the air was endangered and no flights were diverted. Incoming flights landed normally.

The Oakland Center controls aircraft at higher altitudes after they leave the immediate Bay Area on departures and until they enter local airspace inbound.

There was no immediate indication of what caused the computer failure. The glitch apparently had no major effects at Oakland and San Jose international

airports.

-- Homer Beanfang (Bats@inbellfry.com), December 14, 1999

Answers

This can't be true! Why, they're perfectly remediated and ready to fly. Nothing can go wrong with it at all.

-- believe Jane (ok@ok.ok), December 14, 1999.

Jane......you're missing the point......

Stuff goes wrong with computers ALL of the time......

Yet we still function and life goes on..........

Why, you might well ask..........

Well, Because they FIX it.....that one took them a whole hour and ten minutes to fix!!

For the ultra-doomers lets use scarier sounding numbers to appease you.....It was down for 4200 seconds!! We're just lucky life as we know it continues to exist after that tragedy!!

-- Craig (craig@ccinet.ab.ca), December 14, 1999.

yeah, but if a thousand of the same scenario crashed at the same time , what then ?

-- d (d@d.net), December 14, 1999.

Fixed in an hour? Hmmm...sounds like an install gone bad and it took an hour to back out of it.

-TECH32-

-- TECH32 (TECH32@NOMAIL.COM), December 14, 1999.

Don't know the cause of this radar glitch, but has happened a lot in the Oakland/Bay Area center in the past years, just to be fair.

-- Sheri (wncy2k@nccn.net), December 14, 1999.

Don't worry. Be calm people, this is not a Y2K problem. We just have a few bugs in our new "state-of-the-art" system. It is to be expected with any new computer system. No problem, it's not Y2K related...

What was that? Why do we have this new system?

Well, it seems that it would have been easier to bring in all of this new stuff, than it would have been to fix all of the old stuff. But don't worry, it's not a Y2K promlem. Just your "normal" update issues...

Tick... Tock... <:00= ...

-- Sysman (y2kboard@yahoo.com), December 14, 1999.

From the transcript of the WDCY2K meeting back in September. Joel Willemssen is from the GAO.

---: Has FAA implemented all their upgrades?

Joel Willemsson: No. We testified last week that STARS would be implemented through December and January. We testified to our concerns on this. Not all new systems are in, by a long shot.

FAA still has systems being installed. Must be some of that 0.1% remaining from the "99.9%" Y2K compliance that Mr. Clinton referred to. Y'know, little things like air traffic control...

-- Mac (sneak@lurk.com), December 14, 1999.