Computer Failure Grounds Many, Many UK flights today

Sulako · Post by **Sulako** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 7:50 am

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3772077.stm

Massive air disruption across UK

Air safety was said to be unaffected by the computer failure
Thousands of air passengers are facing delays after an air traffic control computer failure caused flights to be suspended across the UK.
National Air Traffic Services said flights were grounded so that controllers could prioritise on planes in the air, but safety was unaffected.

The air traffic control centre at West Drayton is now fully operational again and flights are resuming.

Many airports are advising people to check in as normal.

Nats' Flight Data Processing System failed at around 0600BST for an hour.

Speaking to BBC News 24 Chief Executive Richard Everitt said the failure followed overnight testing of an upgrade to its Flight Data Processing System in West Drayton.

What we did here was to ensure safety levels were maintained, we did that by taking the traffic right down

Richard Everitt
Nats chief executive
"This is a significant upgrade that we will be doing later in the year, we have to test that very thoroughly because safety is paramount.

"We will now investigate why there was this problem - clearly it was not an anticipated problem - a lot of work will be done today to understand why we had problems with this testing," he said.

"What we did here was to ensure safety levels were maintained, we did that by taking the traffic right down, handling the arrivals while we sorted this problem out. "

Mr Everitt said Nats was planning on spending over £1bn on upgrading its system over the next eight years.

He apologised to passengers and said Nats was working with airlines to minimise disruption.

'Upgrade'

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Transport Secretary Alistair Darling insisted Britain's system compared favourably with other countries.

"We are putting the money in, it is making a difference.

"If you look at the delays caused by air traffic control failure they have come down dramatically over the last few years," he added.

BBC transport correspondent Tom Symonds says the affected computer systems were not those that handle the separation of aircraft in the air.

He says the fault was in what is known as the host control system, a two-year-old computer system at West Drayton.

The system handles flight strips which are the basic details of flights coming in and out of the UK.

'Uptight'

Spokesman for London's Heathrow Airport, Mark Pearson, said: "There is serious disruption at Heathrow as a result of the air traffic control situation.

As long as there is an aircraft and someone waiting for us at the other end we'll be fine

Passenger Gerald Godfrey

"There is an average of two hour delays on departures and restrictions on arrivals."

He advised passengers to check with their airlines before leaving home.

Passengers Monica and Gerald Godfrey - waiting for a British Airways flight from Heathrow to Toronto - told BBC News Online their flight had been delayed by the problems.

The couple said they would have a cup of tea and relax after checking in.

"It depends on how long the delay is, we might get a little uptight," Mrs Godfrey said.

Mr Godfrey added: "But at the end of the day there's nothing we can do about it.

"As long as there is an aircraft and someone waiting for us at the other end we'll be fine."

hz2p · Post by **hz2p** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 8:54 am

One good computer programmer (which they obviously don't have) is worth how many pilots again?

Let's call it 100 pilots, each earning us$250K/yr. Therefore one good computer programmer would be worth us$2.5M/yr.

No wonder their software doesn't work - they couldn't afford one good computer programmer

cyyz · Post by **cyyz** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 8:59 am

hz2p wrote: Let's call it 100 pilots, each earning us$250K/yr. Therefore one good computer programmer would be worth us$2.5M/yr.

How much is Microsoft worth? 100 billion??? Would be nice if they fired ALL their programmers and did hire that one "good" programmer.

Windows has so many holes, glitches, crashes and problems..

I've yet to see one "good" programmer..

FamilyGuy · Post by **FamilyGuy** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 10:12 am

YYZ - ROTFLMFAO - Is there anybody or any profession in the entire world that you do not want to fire? ????? ? ......

cyyz · Post by **cyyz** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 10:17 am

The guy who does the firing, he's important.

But eventually once everyone is fired, we'll need someone to lay him off too. Maybe he could do it as he's heading home..

FamilyGuy · Post by **FamilyGuy** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 4:56 pm

Those responsible for the sacking have been sacked.

You are such a tard its funny.......Thanks for that, I'm still laughing.

happy_flyer · Post by **happy_flyer** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 7:15 pm

The company who wrote the software was EDS - a huge American IT company, once part of GM, owned by Ross Perot. They did a really really bad job - it was millions over budget and years late. They are responsible for many major IT disasters in th UK, mostly government contracts costing taxpayers trillions of dollars. They are losing contracts all the time because of their performance and it can only be a good thing when they pack it in and go home.