[November 20, 2009] FAA fixes flight data problems, but delays still expected Tweet TAMPA, Nov 19, 2009 (Tampa Tribune - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Airports nationwide including Tampa International will continue to experience flight delays today although the Federal Aviation Administration corrected a technical problem that began at one of two national centers that handle flight plans. The failure was attributed to a software configuration problem at an FAA telecommunications center in Salt Lake City that lasted from 5 to 9 a.m. That meant electronic flight planning was unavailable. During the outage, air traffic controllers managed flight plan data manually and safely according to FAA contingency plans, spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said. By noon, only nine departures from Tampa International Airport were announced as delayed or leaving late. The problems primarily affected flights serving Atlanta, Charlotte, N.C., and Houston, Tampa airport officials said. Carol Joy of Clearwater was supposed to meet her sister and 80-year-old mother in Atlanta for a flight to Barcelona, Spain. But her relatives were headed to Atlanta on a flight from Pittsburgh that was delayed, and Joy worried that the family trip would have to be postponed. Flight delays generally spread out throughout a day because aircraft are assigned multiple flight segments. Late departures and arrivals on one route create a cascading effect on subsequent flights. There was no indication the malfunction was caused by a cyber attack, the FAA said. A team of FAA technical and safety experts investigated the outage. FAA administrator Randy Babbitt met with representatives from Harris Corp., the company that manages the network, to discuss system corrections to prevent similar outages in the future. In August 2008, a software malfunction delayed hundreds of flights around the country. In that episode, the Northeast was hardest hit by the delays prompted by a glitch at the Hampton, Ga., facility that processes flight plans for the eastern half of the United States. The FAA said at that time the source of the computer software malfunction was a "packet switch" that "failed due to a database mismatch." Information from reporter Rod Challenger contributed and The Associated Press was used in this report. To see more of the Tampa Tribune -- including its homes, jobs, cars and other classified listings -- or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.tampatrib.com. Copyright (c) 2009, Tampa Tribune, Fla. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]