Note this portion of the article:

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Molinaro said the FAA does not have a fallback strategy if the kinks in ARTS 6.05 are not worked out by June 30 or--in a worst-case situation--by Dec. 31. Asked what the FAA would do if such a scenario came to pass, Molinaro said: "I wouldn't even want to speculate on it."

Since being commissioned last summer at the FAA's facility in Elgin, ARTS 6.05 has been up and down. Last November, it was unplugged and sent back to the FAA's technical center--and it took experts until late April to correct the potentially lethal failures. It was taken down again Wednesday night after problems caused delays of up to three hours earlier in the day at O'Hare and Midway.

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complete article follows below:

http://chicagotribune.com/news/metro/chicago/article/0,1051,SAV-9905070160,00.html

BUGS FORCE FAA TO PUT OLDER RADAR SYSTEM BACK

By Jon Hilkevitch Tribune Transportation Writer

May 7, 1999

The malfunctioning air-traffic radar system that was taken out of service this week after causing serious delays at Chicago's two major airports will be repaired by June 30, the Federal Aviation Administration said Thursday.

Restoration of the balky system is important beyond its advanced technology: It's the only software used to direct local air traffic that is Y2K compliant. The system has failed repeatedly since last summer--and has been removed entirely twice--so officials are eager to reinstall it with plenty of time to spare before New Year's Day in case more glitches occur.

An older radar system that was re-activated Thursday as a temporary backup is not Y2K certified, meaning hardware and software using date-dependent information could shut down computers or generate inaccurate data on Jan. 1.

The June 30 goal to get the Y2K-compliant system, called ARTS 6.05, working reliably is not arbitrary. The FAA, which already has missed Y2K deadlines set by the Clinton administration, next faces a self-imposed June 30 deadline to complete all Y2K renovation, testing and systems implementation.

FAA administrator Jane Garvey said the agency is more than 90 percent toward the goal of ensuring its 425 mission-critical computer systems properly recognize the year 2000.

However, the FAA, which has a reputation of missing deadlines to introduce new technology aimed at making air travel safer and more efficient, has not isolated the vexing computer software problems causing the ARTS 6.05 system to freeze up and temporarily lose the airplanes it is supposed to be tracking.

FAA spokesman Tony Molinaro on Thursday said the agency nevertheless remains confident in the ARTS 6.05 system, saying it has been used successfully for more than a year to guide airplanes through crowded skies around airports in New York, Denver and Los Angeles.

"We've made a top priority of correcting the glitches in the ARTS 6.05 software program in Chicago and returning it to service as soon as possible, but no later than June 30," Molinaro said.

Controllers at the Elgin TRACON center, which handles aircraft approaching or climbing out of O'Hare International, Midway and smaller regional airports like DuPage, Waukegan and Palwaukee, complained Thursday about the difficulty of switching from one system to another. The Elgin controllers handle the country's second-busiest air space.

"It is like going from Windows 98 to Windows version 3.1 or using a different word-processing program everyday," said Kurt Granger, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association at the Elgin center. "Many of the computer commands are different, which is a strain that contributes to the workload.

"In this business, you want the computer functions to be second nature so that controllers can fully concentrate on safely moving airplanes, not hunting around on their keyboards," he said.

Molinaro said the FAA does not have a fallback strategy if the kinks in ARTS 6.05 are not worked out by June 30 or--in a worst-case situation--by Dec. 31. Asked what the FAA would do if such a scenario came to pass, Molinaro said: "I wouldn't even want to speculate on it."

Since being commissioned last summer at the FAA's facility in Elgin, ARTS 6.05 has been up and down. Last November, it was unplugged and sent back to the FAA's technical center--and it took experts until late April to correct the potentially lethal failures. It was taken down again Wednesday night after problems caused delays of up to three hours earlier in the day at O'Hare and Midway.

One of the problems, called "ghosting," involves the display of non-existent aircraft on air-traffic controllers' radar screens. The inherent danger is that a controller might think the ghost aircraft are real and respond by directing other planes accordingly.

Asked why the ARTS 6.05 is working around the country but not in the Chicago area, Molinaro said, "That's the million-dollar question."

The system's predecessor, ARTS 6.04, has fewer bells and whistles but operated nearly flawlessly until being retired last August. At this late date, the FAA said, there is no intention of investing the money needed to render ARTS 6.04 Y2K-certified in case the persistent bugs with the newer model cannot be eliminated.

-- PLONK! (realaddress@hotmail.com), May 07, 1999

Answers

From what I understand from this article, ARTS 6.05 is installed and working in New York, Denver and Los Angeles. How many other installations are there to complete besides Chicago?

-- Cary Mc from Tx (Caretha@compuserve.com), May 07, 1999.

Looks like the press might need to change their catchy little mantra to "WHOLE planes will not fall out of the sky"...

R.

-- Roland (nottelling@nowhere.com), May 07, 1999.

Roland,

Maybe they'll just say ... that was a "ghost" you hit. Captain?

See also ...

New York Airport problems similar to Chicago...

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id= 000nrR

*Sigh*

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), May 07, 1999.