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FAA Flight-Plan System Has Long History of Problems
By: Chris Preimesberger
2008-09-24
Article Rating:    / 31
There are 28 user comments on this IT Infrastructure story.
FAA Flight-Plan System Has Long History of Problems (
Page 1 of 4 ) Investigations reveal that the 20-year-old, mainframe-based IT system has crashed several times in the last nine years and that the FAA has been planning its replacement for at least four years. But a new, next-generation IT system won't be online until at least the end of 2008. Meanwhile, the old system creaks along on a wing and a prayer.A major portion of the decades-old national air traffic control system used
to manage thousands of commercial and general aviation takeoffs and landings
every day in the United States has crashed multiple times under the
20-year strain of its 24/7 operations.
As a result, industry analysts and a number of former Federal Aviation
Administration staff members believe there is heightened likelihood of a major
air traffic stoppage, as was demonstrated twice in the last two weeks by the
crash of the system head in Atlanta.
They also believe there is a new, increasing vulnerability to terrorist cyber-attacks.
The Aug. 26 event in which a corrupt
file of some sort entered the system and rendered it useless for about 90
minutes during a high-traffic period was not an isolated incident, as the
FAA's chief administrator originally had told the media.
Hundreds of flights were delayed and thousands of passengers were thrown off
schedule by the system crash, which lasted only 90 minutes but caused
widespread havoc.
The NADIN (National Airspace Data Interchange Network) system, which processes
an average of 1.5 million messages per day, has a history of technical issues,
and resulting travel disruptions are not out of the ordinary, according to
knowledgeable air industry sources.
The FAA originally had reported Aug. 27 that the breakdown of the automated
system was the first of its kind. The crash apparently had baffled FAA
officials, who then conducted a technical investigation to determine the cause.
The 90-minute system crash, which pretty much affected
all the major airports in the nation, later was blamed on a single corrupt
filemost likely a virusthat had entered the system and somehow torpedoed it
into uselessness.
The second NADIN system in Salt Lake City,
to its credit, continued normally in handling all the West Coast flight plans.
But when Atlanta crashed, all the
East Coast data switched over immediately to Salt Lake
City, which could not handle the extra data trafficeven
though it was designed to handle 125 percent of normal load in the event of an
emergency.
Commercial aircraft of any type cannot take off with having filed a valid
flight plan, one that includes destination, estimated flight speed, description
of cargo, estimated altitude, weather conditions and a number of other data
points.
So, for a part of the afternoon of Aug. 26, pilots at about 40 U.S.
airports were forced to manually type their flight plan information into the
system, causing long delays in takeoffs. Chicago's
O'Hare International, one of the two or three busiest airports in the world,
and nearby Midway Airport
were among the most directly affected.
"We've just never seen it fail in this manner," Hank Krakowski, the
chief operating officer for the FAA's Air Traffic Organization, said in his
media remarks.
However, a look at the record shows it had indeed failed several times before,
including only five days prior to the Aug. 26 crash.
| | Reader Comments: FAA's Flight-Plan System Has History of Problems | | >>> Post your comment now!
| | correctionCorrection: people who are more concerned about quality than cost are not even using nails anymore, they are using pressure treated screws and... Posted At: 09-27-08 By: Joe | | | | | | you are being sillycomparing radar in WWII to Sonar today is like comparing a hammer from 1887 and a hammer today.
Most people are using pnuematic nail guns now, so... Posted At: 09-27-08 By: Joe | | | | | | A user comment on this articleThe reason he is so knowledgible on the history of the FAA is that they spend 6-8 weeks in training covering the history of not only the FAA, but of... Posted At: 09-27-08 By: Joe | | | | | | | | | | | | Here's my answer ...Thanks for writing. Sorry I couldn't respond sooner, but I've been kind of busy.
Here's my response to your many... Posted At: 09-24-08 By: Chris Preimesberger | | | | | | A user comment on this articleWith regards to the Stratus systems scheduled to come on line later this year, I believe there are two top-of-the-line fault-tolerant servers backing... Posted At: 09-17-08 By: Ken D | | | | | | A user comment on this articleFrom the article:
<<"Interruptions to a master flight plan system is not just inconvenience, [they are] a major safety risk," server administrator,... Posted At: 09-12-08 By: BobL | | | | | | >>> Post your comment now! | | | | | |
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