FL - Airport equipment grounded

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By Maria M. Perotin of the Sentinel Staff

Published in The Orlando Sentinel on November 28, 2000

Workers at Orlando International Airport`s air traffic control tower yanked out malfunctioning computer software early Monday that had caused some flight delays during one of the busiest travel weekends of the year.

The software, which was installed about three weeks ago to upgrade an existing system, on Sunday afternoon failed to show on radar screens the flight numbers and other detailed information about planes that were taking off and landing.

So air traffic controllers took various precautions, including telling pilots to slow down and keep greater distances between planes. Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said the controllers always had paper versions of the information that didn`t appear on their monitors.

Even after the software was removed, Orlando International endured delays Monday -- some sparked by bad weather around the country and some caused by heavy volume at other airports.

The FAA blamed low visibility and high demand for delays of more than two hours into Chicago O`Hare International Airport.

Orlando International spokeswoman Carolyn Fennell said American Airlines canceled three flights Monday between Orlando and Miami. And some afternoon flights to St. Louis and Raleigh-Durham, N.C., were delayed. She didn`t know what had caused those changes.

On Sunday, Orlando fliers saw 28 flights delayed -- 24 of them departures and four arrivals, Bergen said. The agency couldn`t break down which delays were caused by the computer glitch and which were prompted by stormy weather or other problems.

The average delay lasted 32 minutes, and the longest was 46 minutes, she said.

Workers patched the computer system to keep air traffic flowing Sunday, typically a bustling travel day as Thanksgiving visitors fly home. They removed the software altogether Monday morning and reinstalled the older equipment it had replaced.

Bergen said the new software will be repaired, but it won`t be put back in operation until after Christmas.

"We`re coming into a very busy travel time of year," she said. "We want to go with the reliable software everyone`s comfortable with."

Posted Nov 27 2000 10:20PM

http://orlandosentinel.com/automagic/news/2000-11-28/LOCdelays28112800.html

-- Doris (nocents@bellsouth.net), November 28, 2000


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