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FAA Computer Glitch Causes Widespread Airline Delays
seven of five writes with this excerpt from an Associated Press report: "A problem with the FAA system that collects airlines' flight plans caused widespread flight cancellations and delays nationwide Thursday. It was the second time in 15 months that a glitch in the flight plan system caused delays. The FAA said in a statement that it is having a problem processing flight plan information. 'We are investigating the cause of the problem,' the agency said. 'We are processing flight plans manually and expect some delays. We have radar coverage and communications with planes.'"
If I remember correctly they built this thing on a windows platform with MSSQL as the back end database. I wonder how long it will take for them to dump it and put in a real OS.
compRehensive here, but what is
Have to post as an anonymous coward on this, but the media's source has given them inaccurate information. The problem was not that the system that processes flight plans stopped working, but, that the network (which is provided by a private company contracted with the FAA) went into cardiac arrest due to the failure of a single router. This is reprehensible considering that IP networks were designed from day one to continue working even if portions of the network go down. So, you can preach your 'government can't get anything right' mantra all you want, but in this instance, the problem was that the network has been contracted out. It's been my experience that this almost never saves money or results in higher quality. You should write your congressmen and senators and ask them why this vital part of the country's communications infrastructure has been entrusted to a contractor when clearly they don't know what they are doing.