Major East Coast Airport Problems?

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A friend just called me to say he had just heard on the news that there is some kind of big computer glitch affecting some or all the major airports on the East Coast, with traffic backing up, flights delayed, etc. Anyone out there heard anything about this or is it nothing?

-- george (george@kingfish.com), January 06, 2000

Answers

Just heard it on radio: ABC Breaking News @ 8:00 am CST: The FAA has announced that due to major computer problems all southbound flights from NY's Kennedy, LaGuardia, and Newark Airport are on hold. Furthermore, flights in other cities will be affected. Philadelphia and another city were specifically noted here (but, I forget the name of the other city and I hesitate to guess) More later. Meg

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

http://www.abcnews.go.com/

Live audio confirms.

Cities are Washington, Phil. and all 3 NY Airports - no southerly flight can take off due to a computer problem.

-- Grounded (no@fly.zone), January 06, 2000.


http://www.abcnewsradio.com/

Can listen to the news here.

-- cmd0903 (cmd0903@dontcall.com), January 06, 2000.


Grounded, I just went to your link on ABC news and found nothing about airport delays. Can you be more specific?

-- JoseMiami (caris@prodigy.net), January 06, 2000.

I called just now American in prico e they said that know nothing about it ..Of course they would not say differently.

Thanks Alex

-- Alex (alexcapr@yours.com), January 06, 2000.



Air Traffic Problems in Northeast

Travelers between Washington, D.C., and New York airports are experiencing delays because of an earlier computer system failure. The system is working again now, but officials are still looking into the cause of the problem. More details to follow.

-- Pinkrock (aphotonboy@aol.com), January 06, 2000.


Click the Real Audio News on Radio - Get New an the Hour sorry, no direct links but you will find it on the page mentioned.

-- (@ .com), January 06, 2000.

According to 1010 AM radio news in NYC, the glitch occurred in a computer in Washington D.C., and they are now running on a back-up system. It is affecting air travel along the entire East Coast, and delays are running near 90 minutes at this point.

-- Harbor Guy (HarborGuy@OnThe.Waterfront), January 06, 2000.

will be covered on cnbc news momentarily (10:15 am est).

-- cmd0903 (cmd0903@dontcall.com), January 06, 2000.

This was reported as bringing entire east coast air traffic to a STANDSTILL.

Were awaiting tests prior to going to a *back-up system*.

-- Mabel (mabel_louise@yahoo.com), January 06, 2000.



CNBC reports all traffic from Reagan (DC) Airport heading south is delayed. There is a major computer glitch in a major air traffic control located in Va. Back up systems are in place, but working slow.

Said they cannot confirm y2k yet, but didn't rule it out.....

-- Kathy (shredder_83340@yahoo.com), January 06, 2000.


Could the "back-up system" the FAA is running that is"slow" be manual? Or last year's older computers? My poor husband has to fly to Minneapolis next week, and he isn't looking forward to this Jane Garvey legacy system garbage. Yeah, and it's not y2k related, polly.

-- d (dd@sover.netd), January 06, 2000.

Of course IT WILL BE NOT!!! A Y2K problem NEVER!!!!!!

NOT!!!

They just make me laugh saying that it is not y2k problem

Alex

-- Alex (alexcapr@yours.com), January 06, 2000.


CNN spent a while chatting about it - how flights will soon be delayed all over the country. Dare we say 'cascading effects"?

-- cmd0903 (cmd0903@dontcall.com), January 06, 2000.

I would just like to point out that the FAA has been having problems with delayed flights all year. This is not new. Also, a 90 minute delay does not make for a collapse in Western Civilization even if it is y2k related. I prepped as much as anyone but I have to admit that we are starting to look pathetic as we eagerly and hopefully hang on each "possible" y2k problem and react joyously to any disaster around the world. I agree that vigilance and research is necessary but it is not about vindicating us or proving we were right. Let's not get giddy over potential human pain and problems.

-- JoseMiami (caris@prodigy.net), January 06, 2000.


Well, well well. Can anyone say flight rationing? At the rate these systems are going down, it may not be long until we see cutbacks on air volume.

In Atlanta on this news this morning, for instance, I heard that when weather is bad, Atlanta air volume is as much as TWO times greater than safe operations can handle. Even when weather is perfect, they say there are 10 flights (or was it 10%) too much volume.

Now about those backup systems...WHAT ARE THEY?????

Last year, I assumed it was the legacy, non compliant systems. Can they still use them, or are they, as suggested above, using manual processes?

Jose, yes, you are right, civilization has not collapsed. Kep in mind, however, the transportation industry is a HUGE component of the economy. If problems persist, there will be a huge economic impact, which would potentially hasten or even cause a downturn in the economy and ripple into layoffs, etc. Thee FAA needs to keep their finger in the dike of this one, and hope no other leaks appear.

If the "glitches" and failures accelerate to the point that they can't be fixed before the next one springs up, we will have flight rationing.

-- Duke1983 (Duke1983@aol.com), January 06, 2000.


Let me send this back to the top. Maybe Jose can provide an answer....or others can comment on my last post.

-- Duke1983 (Duke1983@aol.com), January 06, 2000.

Brief clip from a longer CBC report:

"FAA spokesperson Drucie Andersen said the main computer crashed because of an overload of 'data transfer problems.' It reverted to a back-up computer instead."

Don't know if this sheds any light on things or not.

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), January 06, 2000.


Found something else of interest, too:

"FAA Did Not Check Y2K Staff, GAO Says" Washington Post (01/05/00) P. A12

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) contracted with dozens of foreign computer experts to make the nation's air traffic control systems Y2K compliant without first conducting background security checks, according to a recent announcement by the General Accounting Office (GAO). Workers from Ukraine, Pakistan, Britain, Ethiopia, and China performed Y2K testing on 15 of 153 essential air traffic computer systems, raising the possibility that computer codes could have been tampered with.

The GAO says that the FAA's failure to conduct the security checks violates its own policies. However, the FAA did begin conducting investigations on the foreigners after a GAO report on the matter was released in early December, and so far no security risks have turned up."

Source: http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2000-2/0105w.html#item2

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), January 06, 2000.


Rachel:

Good post. The private sector did the same thing, sending millions of lines of code to India, etc. Not that I have anything against them at all. But if you do things like that without secruity checks, then don't grumble when the cyber-terrorists arrive. Actually they don't need to, we handed the keys over to them, and when they return the keys, they'll just change some of the keys a bit, so they'll sort of work until ...

How stupid can you be? This has got to establish a new level of stupidity.

-- Interested Spectator (is@the_ring.side), January 06, 2000.


Thanks, Interested. Found it on an aviation safety board.

I don't think it's stupidity. It's the kind of "item" that gets overlooked, pushed aside when you are very rushed for time. It adds to my belief that we've been extremely lucky, so far, and it makes me wonder how much longer that luck will hold out.

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), January 06, 2000.


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