More on ZLA Radio Outage

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[ More on the ZLA Outage on 14/9/04. Just to show you how bad
it REALLY could have been. This was the most accurate article
I've seen so far. -Ed ]

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/s...faaoutage.html

Air controllers report chaos, near misses, after computer failure

ASSOCIATED PRESS

10:31 a.m. September 15, 2004


LOS ANGELES - In at least five cases, aircraft passed dangerously close to
each other after a computer failure cut off radio contact between pilots
and air traffic controllers for hours and forced the grounding of hundreds
of flights throughout the country, a union official said Wednesday.

Two flights "were almost near-mid-air collisions," said Hamid Ghaffari,
local president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association.

As planes traveled perilously close to one another, "We couldn't do
anything," Ghaffari said, based on his interviews with on-duty controllers
and a review of radar records.

"We can't do our job unless there is communication. If there are no
communications, you are helpless," he said.

On-board safety equipment that includes a collision avoidance system
allowed pilots to avoid potential disaster in the sky, he said.

"That was the hero of the night," he said.

After radio contact failed about 4:40 p.m. Tuesday at the Federal Aviation
Administration facility in Palmdale, the control room "looked like complete
chaos all over the place," Ghaffari said.

A backup computer system was activated but that also failed, he said.

Three workers filed on-the-job injury claims after becoming traumatized by
watching flights veer toward one another on radar without being able to do
anything, he said.

Under FAA "separation standards," planes are required to fly at least five
miles apart horizontally and no less than 1,000 feet vertically. In at
least five cases, that safety bubble was violated, and in two cases planes
came within about two miles of each other, Ghaffari said.

Flights across much of the country resumed late Tuesday after repairs
restored radio contact. But airports struggled to accommodate irked
passengers who were forced to wait hours to board delayed flights.

At Los Angeles International Airport, the outage brought about 400 flights
to a standstill. Two dozen flights at the Oakland International Airport and
more than a dozen at Ontario International Airport also did not depart or
arrive on time.

The delays caused a ripple effect throughout the country as planes bound
for Los Angeles and other airports were held on the ground.

In all, planes were grounded for about three hours at airports in the Los
Angeles region, northern California and parts of Nevada, Federal Aviation
Administration spokeswoman Laura Brown said.

The outage began at the Los Angeles Air Route Traffic Control Center in
Palmdale. The station, located in the desert north of Los Angeles, controls
airspace for a vast region that encompasses California, Arizona, Nevada and
parts of Utah.

Control of the airspace was turned over to other air traffic control
facilities, including one in Albuquerque, N.M.

By 8 p.m. Tuesday, the FAA allowed flights to resume at 50 percent airport
capacity so the facilities wouldn't be flooded with passengers, said Nancy
Castles, a spokeswoman for Los Angeles International Airport.

Air travel reached full capacity by early Wednesday, said Diana Joubert,
an FAA operations officer.


BL.
- --
Brad Littlejohn | Email:
Unix Systems Administrator, |
Web + NewsMaster, BOFH.. Smeghead! | http://www.sbcglobal.net/~tyketto
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