Computer Failures Result In Delays

In the past three days, the FAA's primary radar services have failed in both Chicago and New York.

On Tuesday, the main computer system at New York Center in Ronkonkoma on Long Island failed. The failure, which occurred at about 2:15 Tuesday afternoon, meant controllers had to resort to an older backup system, which still allowed controllers get a skin paint of the aircraft in their area.

The older system didn't provide corresponding transponder information to identify those aircraft, however -- meaning controllers had to resort to calling their counterparts at other TRACONS to get information such as airlines and flight numbers for the aircraft showing on their screen.

To compensate for the increased workload, planes were spaced with 15 miles separation between them, instead of the usual five... and THAT led to flight delays as far away as Chicago, lasting for hours even after the system was back up and running at around 3:15 pm.

Speaking of Chicago... the failure in New York comes one day after telephone workers in Illinois cut the line between the Chicago TRACON and the control tower at O'Hare -- meaning regional and tower controllers weren't able to hand flights off between each other as readily as usual. Again, a backup system was employed after the failure Monday... but that meant more delays, some up to two hours, on the ground at airports across the country. The problem was eventually resolved about five hours later.

FMI: www.faa.gov