Planes circling in the air everywhere.

[toggleswitch2]

OK WTF is going on? The whole north-eastern US's air-traffic control system is down. Planes can't land. Delays in every flight in the country!

OY VEY!

 

[oldhouseman]

Computer Glitch

is what CNN is saying. Flordia airports and the airport here in Atlanta also is not working.....

 

[oldhouseman]

Here is

the story from CNN, it's nationwide.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TRAVEL/08/26/faa.computer.failure/index.html

 

[sudsmaster]

First Netflix, now this.

 

[danemodsandy]

What I Want to Know Is:

What is the manual backup for this, in case they can't get the system back up before planes start running out of fuel?

One more reason why Mrs. McLendon's little boy Sandy Does. Not. Fly.

 

[whirlcool]

It's not the planes in the air that are having the problems, it's planes waiting to depart. Without a flight plan, a commercial flight can't take off. What probably happened was all the cancellations and refiles of flight plans out of ATL overloaded the system. Remember, the FAA does not always have the latest computer systems.
If a plane runs low on fuel, they can divert to the nearest acceptable airport that has fuel available. You just gotta let enroute ATC know that's what you are going to do.

 

[sudsmaster]

Indicative, I think, of a larger problem brewing. After a surge in purchasing in the late 90's, IT budgets have shrunk considerably. Perhaps a bit too much. One possible consequence is that hardware is being kept in service past its useful life. Another is that staffing just isn't there to do preventative maintenance of the older equipment. So we've seen Netflix lose some $40 million in sales due to a massive computer hardware failure, and now the FAA is having computer issues.

But I bet China isn't having these sorts of problems.

 

[whirlcool]

Case in point, the FAA Computer system that operates in the Chicago Enroute Air Traffic Control Center was replaced in the mid 90's. The one that was taken out of service was a special built one of a kind IBM mainframe from 1968! It was the only one like it anywhere, and the IBM repair guys were afraid to touch it for fear of causing a failure! I'd actually seen this monster of a machine myself in the late 80's during a tour of the place.
the computer files all the flight plans and keeps the flight info on the screen next to the "blip" target on the screen. When it goes down, all the information from the blips disappears and then ATC had to bring out the "Shrimp Boats", which were little clear plastic chips that you had to manually write information on for EACH flight and then move it across the screen as each flight progresses.
This activity slows down the ATC system by at least 50%!

 

[oldhouseman]

Case in point

Again, we were in the same spot Dec. 6th 1941.

REMEMBER??? What happened the next day.

America needs to be the leader in this not falling behind.

And we have fallen behind. Again.

We led the world after WWII in many fields.

Now the republicans and democrats are trading farts.

Yes farts. They all suck.

We need a citizen revolution to wake up these assholes and make them earn their keep.

We pay them high wages and benefits.

They should earn it!!

Elected officials have salary and health care benefits for life even if they serve only ONE term in office.

They have raised their salary several times during the Bush admin. while voting to not raise min. wage.