Does anyone know if these airports are still on "Hold"?

January 6, 2000

Flights Delayed in Northeast

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Filed at 10:42 a.m. EST http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/a/AP-Plane-Delays.html

By The Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) -- A Federal Aviation Administration computer problem caused flight delays of up to two hours today across the Northeast, aviation officials said.

Two-hour delays were reported on flights in and out of Kennedy Airport in New York. Delays of up to one hour were reported at LaGuardia and Newark airports in the greater New York area.

Flights leaving Reagan National and Dulles airports in Washington also were delayed, as were flights at Logan International Airport, according to WBZ in Boston.

The FAA declined immediate comment.

Tom Sullivan, a spokesman for the Washington area airport authority, said the problem began about 8:30 a.m. with an FAA air traffic control computer.

Greg Trevor, a spokesman for the Port Authority in New York, said departures from JFK, LaGuardia and Newark were being delayed.

``We also have scattered delays of up to two hours at Kennedy. We're told there has been a ground stop on flights that have to use the Washington center, which primarily involves flights going to and from Washington, Virginia and North Carolina.''

On Monday, a computer malfunction at the FAA's center in Nashua, N.H., delayed flights at airports in Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York. FAA officials said a backup computer system was used when the main computer at the air traffic control center experienced problems for about three hours Monday night.

Eliot Brenner, FAA's spokesman in Washington, said then that the problem was not related to Y2K, the term used to describe glitches prompted by problems experienced by computers making the rollover from 1999 to 2000.

The FAA's Boston center in Nashua controls flights over more than 160,000 square miles of air space from the Atlantic Ocean to western New York and from the Canadian border to south of Long Island in New York.

-- meg davis (meg9999@aol.com), January 06, 2000

Answers

a two hour delay out of New York??? Nah, can't happen. Why, it must be unprecedented!

Sorry about the sarcasm, but a two hour delay at any airport in the greater New Yawk area is hardly newsworthy. Fog can cause that.

-- Simpleminded (nope@wont.never), January 06, 2000.

simpleminded COMPUTERS caused this delay not FOG!!!

moron.

-- Swampthing (in@the.swamp), January 06, 2000.

Just got a call from our travel agent here at work who reported that there are also delays in and out of Philadelphia due to the FAA computer problem.

-- no (one@you.know), January 06, 2000.

Swampthing, evidently subtlety is not your forte. My point was that a two hour delay at any Greater New York area airport isn't a big deal no matter what causes it.

-- Simpleminded (nope@wont.never), January 06, 2000.

No, Simpleminded, but two-hour delays all over the Northeast are definitely on the precipice of a big deal... -s-

-- Scott Johnson (scojo@yahoo.com), January 06, 2000.

"My point was that a two hour delay at any Greater New York area airport isn't a big deal no matter what causes it."

What a *pointless* point!

It's like saying "sex happens all the time" and using it as a defense when charged with rape, or using "death happens to everyone" as a defense when charged with murder.

Free clue, twinklins: it's the *cause* of the delay that is *precisely* the reason for concern.

-- Ron Schwarz (rs@clubvb.com.delete.this), January 06, 2000.

So you're saying I should be freaking out because of a computer glitch that's causing up to a two hour delay in some East Coast airports. Mmm hmm. Not gonna happen.

And what's with the twinklins crap? Is that your idea of a joke, or are you just feebleminded?

-- Simpleminded (nope@wont.never), January 06, 2000.

Because I've been home sick, I've been watching the Weather Channel - as of 10:30 CST they're saying "the FAA reports that the *COMPUTER GLITCH* that delayed filghts over the Northeast has been fixed" and also "It's *not* related to the weather." Note that the Weather Channel says it's not a weather problem, and that the FAA apparently is stating it's a computer problem. But never that it's Y2K related.

-- machka (machka@netscape.net), January 06, 2000.

And what's with the twinklins crap?

Simpleminded, I wouldn't take offense. Ron was just allowing his soft, sensitive side to show through.

-- David L (bumpkin@dnet.net), January 06, 2000.