FAA: Computer Malfunction Causes Hundreds of Flight Cancellations

[<rms () computerbytesman com>]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,279613,00.html

WASHINGTON -  A computer failure in the nation's air-traffic control system
caused severe flight delays along the East Coast Friday, the Federal
Aviation Adminstration said.

A computer system in Atlanta that processes pilots' flights plans and sends
them to air-traffic controllers failed late Thursday or early Friday, FAA
spokeswoman Diane Spitaliere said. The agency rerouted the system's
functions to another computer in Salt Lake City, which overloaded due to the
increased volume of data, magnifying the problem.

The FAA could not immediately calculate the number of flight delays caused
by the problem, which was made worse by bad weather, Spitaliere said.

Although the computer problem was fixed shortly before 11 a.m. Friday, its
impact lingered on into the late afternoon, especially in New York, where
computer systems took two extra hours to get back online, Spitaliere said.
She said the flight delays in the rest of the country were not as severe.

Doug Church, a spokesman for the National Air Traffic Controllers
Association, said the problem forced controllers to enter flight information
manually, which he described as a time-consuming practice. "With some of
these East Coast airports, nothing is getting in right now," Church said
Friday afternoon.


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