The good news: breaking through the Y2K time barrier

Air Safety Week, Jan 10, 2000

Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater and FAA Deputy Administrator Monte Belger jointly hailed the rollover to the Year 2000 a "successful transition." At a Jan. 3d press conference, the two officials declared there were no reported interruptions in air traffic control computers, cockpit displays, or airports. The Universal Coordinated Time (or "Zulu" time) came five hours before midnight, local time, at the FAA's command center in Herndon, Va., and both rollovers were uneventful.

The FAA did not escape unscathed. There were minor problems, although they reportedly did not affect air traffic services. Printer problems were noted at two oceanic facilities, and hiccups occurred involving low level windshear alert systems at six airports. Both problems were repaired immediately, officials declared. The computer that processes NOTAMS (notices to airmen) didn't recognize the date change. The affected messages were immediately reissued as NOTAMS "D," another method of distribution. In addition, a last-minute two-line software patch to the HOST computer system was distributed to all en route centers on Dec. 30. In the remote possibility that the HOST crashed and had to reboot prior to the date rollover, the computers originally were set to choose the 1999 backup data rather than the 2000 data. The patch corrected the potential glitch by instructing the computers to use the year 2000 backup data in the event of a reboot. "There were a lot of pessimists a year ago and we showed them that the system worked like it should," Belger crowed. >> FAA, 202/267-3463 <<