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No aftereffect expected from FAA computer woe
TAMPA, Nov 20, 2009 (Tampa Tribune - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
U.S. airports were not expected to see flight delays today after a computer problem Thursday that began at one of two national centers that handle flight plans.
The failure was attributed to a software configuration problem at a Federal Aviation Administration telecommunications center in Salt Lake City that lasted from 5 a.m. to 9 a.m.
That meant electronic flight planning was unavailable. During the outage, air traffic controllers handled flight plan data manually and safely based on FAA contingency plans, spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said.
By noon Thursday, nine departures from Tampa International Airport had been affected. The problems primarily affected flights serving Atlanta, Houston and Charlotte, N.C., said Tampa airport officials.
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 were spread out through the day because late departures and arrivals on one route have a cascading effect on subsequent flights.
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.
There was no indication the malfunction was caused by a cyberattack, the FAA said.
In August 2008, a software malfunction delayed hundreds of flights across the country. The Northeast was hardest hit in that episode, with 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 then that the source of the computer software malfunction was a "packet switch" that "failed due to a database mismatch."
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report. News Channel 8 Reporter Rod Challenger contributed to this report.
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http://www.tampatrib.com. Copyright (c) 2009, Tampa Tribune, Fla. Distributed by
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