Hey, if you think this is pathetic, wait until NextGen ATC is deployed. A
satellite based system, vulnerable to solar disruption, terrestrial jamming,
and lacking any means of empirical determination of aircraft location is
destined to cause more hazards to airline traffic than it is designed to
overcome.


http://www.nbcnews.com/news/investigations/spy-plane-fries-air-traffic-control-computers-shuts-down-lax-n95886
Spy Plane Fries Air Traffic Control Computers, Shuts Down LAX
By Andrew Blankstein

A relic from the Cold War appears to have triggered a software glitch at a
major air traffic control center in California Wednesday that led to delays and
cancellations of hundreds of flights across the country, sources familiar with
the incident told NBC News.

On Wednesday at about 2 p.m., according to sources, a U-2 spy plane, the same
type of aircraft that flew high-altitude spy missions over Russia 50 years ago,
passed through the airspace monitored by the L.A. Air Route Traffic Control
Center in Palmdale, Calif. The L.A. Center handles landings and departures at
the region’s major airports, including Los Angeles International (LAX), San
Diego and Las Vegas.

The computers at the L.A. Center are programmed to keep commercial airliners
and other aircraft from colliding with each other. The U-2 was flying at 60,000
feet, but the computers were attempting to keep it from colliding with planes
that were actually miles beneath it.

Though the exact technical causes are not known, the spy plane’s altitude and
route apparently overloaded a computer system called ERAM, which generates
display data for air-traffic controllers. Back-up computer systems also failed.

ER2 AIRCRAFT IN FLIGHT AP
A NASA ER-2 high altitude research aircraft is shown in flight on Nov. 4, 1997.

As a result, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had to stop accepting
flights into airspace managed by the L.A. Center, issuing a nationwide ground
stop that lasted for about an hour and affected thousands of passengers.

At LAX, one of the nation’s busiest airports, there were 27 cancellations of
arriving flights, as well as 212 delays and 27 diversions to other airports.
Twenty-three departing flights were cancelled, while 216 were delayed. There
were also delays at the airports in Burbank, Long Beach, Ontario and Orange
County and at other airports across the Southwestern U.S.

In a statement to NBC News, the FAA said that it was “investigating a
flight-plan processing issue” at the L.A. Air Route Traffic Control Center, but
did not elaborate on the reasons for the glitch and did not confirm that it was
related to the U-2’s flight.

“FAA technical specialists resolved the specific issue that triggered the
problem on Wednesday, and the FAA has put in place mitigation measures as
engineers complete development of software changes,” said the agency in a
statement. “The FAA will fully analyze the event to resolve any underlying
issues that contributed to the incident and prevent a reoccurrence.”

Sources told NBC News that the plane was a U-2 with a Defense Department flight
plan. “It was a ‘Dragon Lady,’” said one source, using the nickname for the
plane. Edwards Air Force Base is 30 miles north of the L.A. Center. Both
Edwards and NASA’s Neil A. Armstrong Flight Research Center, which is located
at Edwards, have been known to host U-2s and similar, successor aircraft.

The U.S. Air Force is still flying U-2s, but plans to retire them within the
next few years.

Gary Hatch, spokesman for Edwards Air Force Base, would not comment on the
Wednesday incident, but said, “There are no U-2 planes assigned to Edwards.”

Kevin Rohrer, a spokesman for the Armstrong Flight Research Center, said that
neither of the two high-altitude ER-2 planes used by the agency for earth
science research were flying that day.

Developed more than a half-century ago, the U-2 was once a workhorse of U.S.
airborne surveillance. The plane’s “operational ceiling” is 70,000 feet. In
1960, Francis Gary Powers was flying a U-2 for the CIA over the Soviet Union
when he was shot down. He was held captive by the Russians for two years before
being exchanged for a KGB colonel in U.S. custody. A second U.S. U-2 was shot
down over Cuba in 1962, killing the pilot.
First published May 2nd 2014, 11:43 am
byline photo
Andrew Blankstein

Andrew Blankstein is an investigative reporter for NBC News. He covers the
Western United States, specializing... Expand Bio