BY ANNE ROCHELL KONIGSMARK

Mercury News

The flight information monitors at San Francisco Airport's new international terminal malfunctioned Tuesday, forcing passengers to check on flights the old-fashioned way -- by asking someone.

Because of a database glitch in Manchester, England, [§ import of non-compliant data] the 2,000 monitors stopped displaying arrival and departure times and gate information at 9:10 a.m. Tuesday, said Ron Wilson, an airport spokesman.

``They started displaying other stuff, I'm not sure what,'' he said.

Departing passengers and people picking up arriving passengers had to get flight information from extra personnel dispatched to the terminal, Wilson said.

Half the monitors were working again early Tuesday afternoon, Wilson said, and the other half came back on line later in the day.

The flight information is generated by a private contractor called Arinc. The monitors themselves are maintained by SFOTEC, which, coincidentally, the San Francisco Airport commissioners voted Tuesday morning to reimburse for testing and operating airport equipment last fall, before the terminal was fully open. The company is owed more than $1.5 million for that work.

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-- Anonymous, May 17, 2001