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Technology Stocks : Discuss Year 2000 Issues -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Mansfield who wrote (1536)	5/2/1998 12:39:00 PM
From: John Mansfield	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9818

[FAA] FAA REACTING SLOWLY TO YEAR 2000 COMPUTER PROBLEM BY ANNETTE CODISPOTI Assistant Editor, The Institute With 1 Jan. 2000 less than two years away and concern growing over the year 2000 programming problem, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration is still in an "awareness" phase, which means it hasn't developed a course of action to make its air traffic control infrastructure Y2K compliant. Maybe it's not time to panic, but concern is definitely in order. According to a report by the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO), the FAA has failed to designate problem areas and has no way of knowing how serious its Y2K problem is or what it will do to address it. Making the skies safe for 1 Jan. 2000 is no small task: With 23 million lines of code, 50 computer languages and more than 250 computer systems, the FAA has a difficult road ahead. Randy Schwitz, executive vice president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, said NATCA has been following the FAA's progress -- or lack thereof -- and things aren't pretty. "We've been watching to see if they're meeting time lines, and they're not," said Schwitz, adding that controllers "are not optimistic" about the situation. "They're very aware of it and they don't believe they (FAA) can do it on time," he said. Jane F. Garvey, FAA Administrator, testifying before Congress recently in response to the GAO's report, assured the members of the House Committee on Science that the FAA will be ready. "Aviation safety will not be compromised. Ensuring that we meet this challenge is one of my top priorities," said Garvey, while admitting that the FAA is behind schedule. SHUTDOWN. The biggest problem, according to Schwitz, will be the possible shutdown of the host computer which ties together the 20 air traffic control centers in the U.S. that control aircraft after they leave the airports. Some specific functions that can be lost are the ability to transfer control from one controller to another; systems that warn controllers when two aircraft are too close to one another and when an aircraft is too close to the ground; the loss of route lines which display the path of an aircraft; halos, which display a five-mile ring around an aircraft on the radar scope; and the quick look function, which allows a controller to view aircraft on an adjacent controller's scope in the event that his or her's fails. Another big problem, said Schwitz, is the lack of a contingency plan. The controllers need to be trained to handle the problems that will arise if the systems fail. After all, this doesn't happen every day. There is a backup system called DARC (direct access radar channel) but Schwitz said that the FAA is not sure if DARC is Y2K compliant either. When asked to imagine what 1 Jan. 2000 will be like, Schwitz said the problems, if they do occur, will be immediate. Aircraft will have to be put in holding patterns at different altitudes causing delays. The aircraft are supposed to be kept 5 miles apart, and 5 miles, said Schwitz, is less than 1 minute away. In addition to safety, Schwitz said, "It would have a definite economic impact. I would imagine Amtrak might make some money." He said he'd rather "be at home watching the ball drop in Times Square" than traveling that day. The GAO report says the systems in use are "unique to the FAA and not off-the-shelf systems that can be easily maintained by system vendors." But that is just one part of the problem. "The enormous challenge involved in correcting these systems is not primarily technical, however, it's managerial," the report says. The FAA appointed program manager Ray Long late last year to focus on the plans needed for the "mission-critical" systems such as the air traffic control infrastructure. He will also be working directly with the aviation industry so that airlines and airports are kept fully informed of the FAA's Y2K progress. .... spectrum.ieee.org