Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

FAA Pushes Air Traffic Control Systems Into Service

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the fly-the-friendly-skies dept.

An anonymous reader points us to this AP story about the FAA forcing new air traffic control systems into service, over the objections of technicians and air traffic controllers. The Transportation Department's Inspector General notes that many critical bugs remain unfixed. We reviewed a book that discussed the lessons to be learned from software engineering projects; and we had a recent story about Great Britain having all sorts of problems with their new air traffic control software.

7 of 333 comments (clear)

  1. Do what Microsoft does by alen · · Score: 3, Funny

    Roll it out into production and patch it later. Only full production testing will find all the bugs.

  2. New traffic control system by t_allardyce · · Score: 3, Funny

    Yeah, the controllers are pissed off because they based the new system on one of those bad ATC games with flashy graphics. It now runs on a Windows 98 machine and crashes every 1024 planes

    --
    This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
  3. Hummm ... on that note .. by TheViffer · · Score: 3, Funny
    some useful web sites to think about for the next couple of months.

    Amtrak
    Greyhound
    Hertz

    --
    -- Knowing too much can get you killed, but knowing who knows too much can make you rich.
  4. Re:Bugs and air-traffic control.. by rhost89 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Sounds like your more mad at Al's Meat Market :)

    --
    I will bend your mind with my spoon
  5. Gives a whole new meaning.. by RailGunner · · Score: 5, Funny

    This gives a whole new meaning to Blue Screen of Death..

  6. Re:Release early, release often by Kredal · · Score: 3, Funny

    Dear Sir/Ma'am,

    We at the FAA are very sorry for the loss of your husband/wife/child aboard AA/United/whoever flight number 123. Their death, and the deaths of all 206 other passengers and crew was caused by a minor glitch in the software used to keep track of all commercial jets in the air. You will be relieved to know that this glitch has been fixed, and is available as a patch to the local air traffic control center.

    Thank you for your continued trust in the airline industry!

    Signed,
    FAA Bigwig

    --------

    I'd rather the software WORK before I trust my life with it, thank you very much.

    --
    Whoever stated that signature sizes should be limited to one hundred and twenty characters can just go ahead and kiss my
  7. Re:I'm tired of politicians playing with my life!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    "We need to be smarter about whom we elect to congress people. No more old people ;) "
    Agreed! Better to hire college students -- get 'em while they're young and still know everything.