Year 2000 Flaw at Detroit Metro Airport

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Article at: http://www2.startribune.com/stOnLine/cgi-bin/article?thisStory=81319128

ROMULUS, Mich. (AP) -- A previously undetected Y2K problem has emerged in computers at Detroit Metropolitan Airport, the leader of a radar technicians union says.

The problem does not pose any dangers to travelers, and it does not affect flight operations, said Al Gardy, principal representative for Michigan and Wisconsin for the Professional Airways Systems Specialists Union. PASS represents about 160 radar technicians in the two states and about 11, 000 nationwide.

Gardy said Monday that technicians discovered the problem Friday at Metro when Federal Aviation Administration personnel tried to extract data about a recent incident in which two aircraft had flown close to each other.

The computer was unable to retrieve the stored data, Gardy said. And the date on the computer' s editing program read January 1970.

The problem affects only the retrieval of stored data. It has nothing to do with ongoing air traffic control operations.

Gardy said FAA officials told him the problem is national but that a software upgrade due to go in this week will correct it.

The problem might have arisen because of efforts to prevent Y2K problems.

" It did not occur until a Y2K patch was put in, " Gardy told the Detroit Free Press for a story Tuesday.

-- Antoine Neron (metis@2000now.org), January 26, 2000


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