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When a computer glitch at a Federal Aviation Administration center caused widespread airline delays this week, it served as a reminder that the U.S. flight system is waiting for a modernizing overhaul. But it also appears the FAA’s management of its existing technologies falls short of standards in other vital sectors.
Because the FAA relies on just two computing systems, one in Atlanta and one in Salt Lake City, to handle that chore for the entire nation, the software glitch all but sank the system Tuesday. The Salt Lake center remained up and served as a backup, but it became overloaded by information coming from airlines. More than 600 flights were delayed from Atlanta all the way to Boston and Chicago.
At the Atlanta center that saw this week’s failure, the National Airspace Data Interchange Network computer has been owned and operated by the FAA since the 1980s, after the Dutch company that developed it went out of business. The agency also is considering adding a third backup site for that and other systems at a technology center in New Jersey, but no final decisions have been made, she added.
However, Doug Church, a spokesman for the National Air Traffic Controllers Association cited the agency’s lack of a ‘’safety net of redundancy,” but he also pointed to its ”fix-on-fail” policy of waiting for something to break before addressing a problem.
The FAA is run by the beancounters who’ve destroyed FEMA and the FDA.
“The FAA is run by the beancounters who’ve destroyed FEMA and the FDA.”
Yep, the same bean counters have been running it for 20 years…
My best friend from college is an air traffic controller and was part of the team that went around the nation training the others on the new IBM system at the time (around ’96 or so)…not sure what they’re using now, but I did go out drinking with her and her buddies and all I can say is…
THEY ARE ALL ALCOHOLICS AND THAT IS THE BIGGER PROBLEM!!
#1 – actually further back than that – another part of the Reagan legacy.
#3 “#1 – actually further back than that – another part of the Reagan legacy.”
Yep, and when Bill took over he followed all of the instructions Reagan & Bush left him and continued the problem…
# 4
And Bush Jr. did a wonderful job did he?
Maybe Ted Stevens can get in there and fix it.
Actually, McCain promises to fix it – if someone shows him how to turn his computer on.
Please notice the age of this system.
The hardware to do the same work would cost less than the admins blow on percs for a week. Most likely less than 400 if you could even find anything that low powered.
Yeah, I know, they’ll blow a few million and it won’t work.
Our government at work.
“actually further back than that – another part of the Reagan legacy”
Part of the Reagan legacy, yes; but he wasn’t the only cause of its future problems. Reagan simply fired all the dedicated, experienced, professional controllers.
If you care to read the old newspapers, you’ll see that they were not striking for more pay or benefits. They were trying to get the government to improve the broken, inadequate system. It never happened.
I graduated Air Traffic Control School at Keesler Air Force Base in January 1959. The CAA (turned into the FAA) was a mess then, and still is.
I never worked as a civilian air traffic controller, so I have no axe to grind – just a knowledge of the history and the job.
As always, the controllers hold it together with talent and dedication – at great cost to themselves and their families, due to their high stress jobs.
I still wonder what it will take to stimulate real improvements.
Does the government spend any money wisely? Is it just too big?
I really think this whole country is running on a hope and prayer’s.
Seems like nobody can get things going in the right direction.
If the FAA has only 2 of these computers. Why is it so hard to upgrade them?
More angry replies from helpless liberals, when the real story is being ignored: How did the system get hacked?
This isn’t a political issue, children. Get a clue.
# 12 James Hill said, on August 30th:
“More angry replies from helpless liberals, when the real story is being ignored: How did the system get hacked?
This isn’t a political issue, children. Get a clue.”
Occam’s Razor: It’s much more likely the outdated, proprietary system (from a company no longer in business) just broke down than that it got hacked. Of course, it’s possible, but since the system has no doubt been held together with ‘spit and baling wire’ for the last two or three decades, less likely than a plain breakdown.
I also disagree about it’s not being a political issue. Thousands of people have been killed all over the world due to errors in air traffic control, whether due to machine or human failure. Hundreds of thousands of people fly every day. People I know and love fly every year. This is just as political as the dangerous intersection where people die in horrible crashes regularly until enough of a stink is raised to get something done about it.