Aug 26 2008
FAA computer failure causes massive airline flight delays across entire U.S.; salespeople celebrate their tax dollars at work
On August 26, a failure in network communication to an Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) computer center, located south of Atlanta, delayed hundreds of flights nationwide, as U.S. airlines waited for approval of their flight plans. Dozens of major airports were affected by the failure, especially in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago and mid-Atlantic cities.
The FAA had to divert all flight plan processing to a second data center, located near Salt Lake City. The resulting backlog caused departure delays of two hours or more in major airline hubs. Agency officials diagnosed the fault and had normal operations running again in less than one day, but some industry observers speculated whether this incident shows that the FAA system is vulnerable to more problems in the future.
So, were any sales pros affected by these flight delays? Leave us a comment below, and let us know how you feel about the fine folks at the FAA…
As an active, instrument-rated pilot, I’ve got strong feelings about the FAA. When you’re up there in bad weather–on very rare occasions with a problem–they are incredibly competent. With all my hours of flying I’ve only had one or two air traffic controllers that I would call worrisome. I would rate that function of the FAA an “A.”
As a business traveller on commercial flights, I have a different perspective than most. The FAA is very, very conservative. They don’t take chances, period. When there is a “flow” delay during busy times or bad weather, I know that safety is first on their minds. I know there are many that disagree.
So far as their technology is concerned, that’s another issue. I know that numerous reputable sources (avweb.com and airlinesafety.com) say that the FAA is the world’s largest consumer of vacuum tubes! They are decades behind where they could be, or some might say, should be. There is one big reason for that…
The FAA is a government agency. They don’t have the threat of competition forcing them into ever increasing levels of effectiveness. Their biggest fear is not a summer afternoon with a thousand flight delays. It’s a plane crash. That’s foremost on their RADAR screen. With respect to that goal, they’ve done a terrific job.
I’ll have to agree with you 100% there, Dave — albeit with clenched teeth. Certainly, safety in airline travel is of the utmost importance, and in that regard, I agree that the FAA’s record there is excellent. And I must admit I’m not willing to fly faster in exchange for a higher risk of injury or worse.
Regardless, systems-related delays like the most recent computer network debacle frustrate me to no end, because they can be so easily avoided if the government would simply keep their systems up-to-date. After all, isn’t this what the FAA is all about? You’re right about the FAA being outmoded — although they have a plan for the next generation airspace control system, they seem to be moving verrrrrrry slooooooowly on this. http://www.faa.gov/news/fact_sheets/news_story.cfm?newsId=8768
I can’t believe they have only two computers for flight plan processing, either. That’s just plain bad disaster recovery policy. They should have more redundancy built into such an important mission-critical system. Period.
I wonder what the total lost productivity impact is for an average two hour delay over one day throughout half of the U.S. airports. I’ll bet we’re talking billions.