Interesting to see how well things are going with FAA.
NOVEMBER 28, 1998
Air Traffic Computers to Be Replaced
WASHINGTON -- The Federal Aviation Administration is about to begin replacing the mainframe computers that have been the workhorses of its 20 high-altitude, long-distance air traffic control centers, installing newer, more reliable models. And it is starting in New York.
The new computers -- the I.B.M. model G-3 -- will replace another I.B.M. model, the 3083, that was installed from 1986 to 1988 but is now obsolete and troublesome. F.A.A. officials said the new computers would be free of the year 2000 flaw ...
search.nytimes.com
APRIL 7, 1999
FAA: NEW AIR TRAFFIC SYSTEM TOO SLOW TO USE
A new $2.2 billion computer system that's supposed to modernize the nation's aging air traffic control network is so slow in tests that tasks take at least twice as long as on the old equipment ....
Message 8750007
APRIL 11, 1999
FAA says air traffic control systems passed public test with no obvious errors
DENVER -- The Federal Aviation Administration said Sunday that the U.S. air traffic control system passed a major public test to see if it could cope with the Year 2000 computer problem. ...
zdnet.com
NOW, OVER PAST SEVERAL DAYS ...
MAY 6, 1999
Flights Stack Up as Radar Bugs Out
(Jon Hilkevitch, James Janega and Carolyn Rusin, Chicago Tribune)
This story is not necessarily Y2K-related... yet. See the Nov. 14 and Oct. 29 editions of the Review for some background .
On Wednesday, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ordered a slowdown of traffic at O'Hare International and Midway Airports. For several hours on Wednesday, all flights were grounded "because of 'software glitches' in a radar program at the FAA's traffic control facility in Elgin."
On Tuesday, a cargo jet apparently came within 300 feet of a Southwest Airlines plane. "The computer bugs at the Elgin center involved an aircraft-tracking system that was returned to service only last month after being unplugged late last year because it repeatedly misidentified, or "ghosted," the location of planes on air-traffic controllers' screens...
A revision of the software called ARTS 6.05 was loaded onto computers Tuesday night. But on Wednesday, vital information that tells controllers the identity, speed and altitude of airplanes began to temporarily disappear from radar screens, FAA and union officials said...
After efforts to fix the problem failed, FAA management and the National Air Traffic Controllers Association agreed to deactivate the finicky ARTS 6.05 system and replace it Thursday morning with a retired version, ARTS 6.04, which had a solid track record.
However, the older system is not Year 2000 compliant, forcing the FAA to quickly correct the glitches in the new, Y2K-compliant ARTS 6.05 and get it back on-line soon, said FAA spokesman Tony
Molinaro."
sangersreview.com
FOLLOWING DAY ...
MAY 7, 1999
Computer Snafu Creates Havoc at 3 Airports
(Matthew L. Wald, New York Times)
Yesterday the Review reported on the software problem that forced a slowdown of air traffic in Chicago area airports. Flights Stack Up as Radar Bugs Out (Jon Hilkevitch, James Janega and Carolyn Rusin, Chicago Tribune)
In today's [May 7] New York Times, we learn that similar problems occurred at the New York Air Route Traffic Control Center, in Ronkonkoma, N.Y., adjacent to MacArthur Airport in Suffolk County. The problem created "havoc at La Guardia, Newark and Philadelphia Airports."
The old system, called Host is being replaced with an upgrade called the Host Computer System Replacement and referred to as Hocsr. The article stated that "problems yesterday apparently occurred when the new computer was linked to a new type of display screen for the controllers...
When the new computer system failed yesterday at 6:25 A.M., the old one automatically took over, but it, too, promptly malfunctioned...
After the two computer systems failed, a third system was put into use... But since that system does not provide as much data, air traffic controllers had to increase the spacing between planes to 20 miles from 10."
Arlene Salac, a spokeswoman for the FAA said, "We haven't had this type of problem with the Hocsr before... Certainly we are concerned about it."
Henry Brown, who represents New York-area members of the Professional Airways System Specialists, said "They rushed this system into service, against our wishes, because they want to say we've got another 40 percent of our equipment Y2K compliant."
In a follow-up piece on the problems in Chicago ...
Bugs Force FAA to Put Older Radar System Back
(Jon Hilkevitch, Chicago Tribune)
FAA spokesman Tony Molinaro said, "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."
He also said that 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."
When asked what the FAA planned do if such a situation occurred, Molinaro said, "I wouldn't even want to speculate on it."
U.S. FAA Chief Makes Y2K Plane Reservation
(AUTHOR, Yahoo! News/Reuters)
In unrelated related news, FAA chief Jane Garvey and FAA Year 2000 coordinator Ray Long are booked on a flight from Washington to Dallas on Dec. 31, and will be in the air when the Greenwich Mean Time clock that controls air navigation rolls over to the year 2000. The agency bought tickets for Garvey and Long on American Airlines Flight 1799 leaving Washington's Reagan National Airport at 6:06 p.m. EST (2306
GMT). (At least they won't be flying from New York to Chicago!)
NOW: sangersreview.com
LATER:http://www.sangersreview.com/990507.htm
Cheryl
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