FAA Transportation Glitches Reported

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"Low-level Windshear Alert (LLWAS) systems failed at Tampa, Denver, Atlanta, Orlando, Chicago O'Hare, and St. Louis during the rollover. ...the last system was in normal operation in just over two hours." Y2K Related? "Yes."

"...(LLWAS)systmes at Toledo, Ohio, Lansing ...displayed an erroneous date on a receiver that takes in a highly-precise time signal. FAA will determine what action to take to correct the incorrect readouts." Y2K Related? "Yes."

"...Data terminal equipment at Rochester, NY; Greensboro, NC ...displayed the date '1900' on rollover." Y2K Related? "Yes."

"The clocks for the Auomated Radar Terminal System (ARTS) IIE at Peoria, IL. stopped right before the rollover."

"The Direct Access Radar Channel monitor at Albuquerque failed immediately after the rollover."

"Kavouras Graphic Weather Display Systems at flight service stations in 16 locations around the country failed about ten minutes after the rollover. ...system sent data bearing the date '2010'resulting in rejection of National Weather Service data ..." Y2K Related? "Yes."

"Weather Message Switching Center Replacement, Atlanta stopped recognizing and processing ... Notices to Airmen (NOTAMS)...failure to recognize years ending in '0'...FAA is renaming and rerouting these notices ...while it develops a repair." Y2K Related? "Yes."

All quotes taken from government site at www.y2k.gov

-- Ron Sellar (y2kbook@telusplanet.net), January 03, 2000

Answers

Thank you so much for this information. I knew there were a lot of incidents going on around the world and have had to work very hard to find them but, apparently, we find ourselves in the 'disinformation' age. Interesting quote, "FAA is renaming and rerouting these notices"! Does that mean that they are in the process of witholding yet more information from the public?

-- Luisa Baldwin (lbaldwin@symantec.com), January 03, 2000.

Hi

I used to audit FAA for the GAO. By far, the ARTS 3E glitch would have been the most significant, since that is the software which actually transmits the radar data re: plane location, etc., onto the screen. ARTS 3E is used in approach control, within 30-50 miles of the airport (the tower guys actually don't do much with the planes except immediate takeoff and taxiing). However, reports are that this was quickly fixed.

The other glitches were not trivial however. FAA is actually lucky that the y2k scare kept people off the planes while they shook down the systems. However, my major concern has always been that with increased traffic other systems would fail. In the FAA, if the screens ever go blank, it is often during the time that traffic is heavy (capacity overwhelms the systems).

-- Bud Hamilton (budham@hotmail.com), January 03, 2000.


In this article, Jane Garvey states that indeed, non-compliant computers could cause radar screens to go blank:

Saturday, January 1, 2000

~snip~

Jane Garvey, who heads the Federal Aviation Administration, said the nation's air-traffic-control systems had completed their Y2K upgrades almost six months ago.

~snip~

Garvey confirmed that her agency had made a late Y2K software change in the computers that help air traffic controllers manage high- altitude traffic.

The union that maintains the computers said the problem, if left uncorrected, could have caused the loss of data from radar screens. Garvey said the glitch, now fixed, had been a ``very, very minor issue.''

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Source: Home Edition ID: 0000000082, PART A, Reuters; Go-Network News website http://www.go.com/Content?arn=a2761reuff- 19991230&qt=traffic+and+lights&sv=IS&lk=noframes&col=NX&kt=A&ak=news14 86

Main header reads: "Y2K Could Trip Up Some U.S. Traffic Lights-Slater, 04:04 p.m Dec 30, 1999 Eastern, By Jim Wolf, WASHINGTON (Reuters)"

-- Lee Maloney (leemaloney@hotmail.com), January 30, 2000.


another article at

http://greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=002Qt3

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), January 30, 2000.


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