Delta Airlines Flights to ATL Delayed up to 6 Hours May 1

[seacue]

The press reports confuse me, but it appears that Delta's centralized computer system handling weight and balance and other dispatch functions went down around 3pm EDT on Saturday. Either it was down for 6 hours or the knock-on effects lasted for over 6 hours. As I said, the AP news report is not clear to me.

The news report characterizes the problem as affecting flights to ATL. One would suppose they might have had a wider impact.

Saturday afternoon would be as good a time as any during which to have such a problem.:O

SC

[SaturnV]

According to CNN, the glitch appears initially to have affected all flights east of Salt Lake City.

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- A glitch in a Delta Air Lines computer system grounded flights out of Atlanta on Saturday afternoon because data needed for takeoffs was not available, an FAA spokeswoman said.

Initially all flights east of Salt Lake City, Utah, were grounded, but within a couple of hours, flights were beginning to take off from airports other than Atlanta, Delta spokeswoman Liza Caceres said.

By early evening, the delays and cancellations were mostly confined to the Central and Eastern United States, Delta spokesman Andy McDill said.

[The computer data is used] to calculate weight and balance, and process passenger-related information, said Kathleen Bergen of the FAA.

The problem, which began about 3 p.m., affected flights across the airline's system, Delta spokeswoman Catherine Stengel said.

[AA717driver]

Atlanta, GA--AirTran managers cancelled all of the airline's Atlanta flight operations Sunday afternoon.

The cancellations were based on erroneous assumptions due to the Delta computer glitch. An anonymous AirTran source stated, "The runways and taxiways were deserted. We were sure Delta was up to something. What would you do?"

Another AirTran source, allegedly quoting senior management said, "Hell, we were sure they were planning to mortar us! Boy, were we embarrassed!"

By late Sunday afternoon, AirTran employees had emerged from their bunkers and resumed flight operations. Most passengers took little notice of the 6 hour delays, figuring it was normal for Atlanta's Hartsfield Airport.;) TC

[LatviaCalling]

Understand from the Finns that discovered it, that Delta may have been hit by the "Sasser" worm virus which made their computer system to go awry. "Sasser" is supposed to be of Russian origin and it hits Microsoft 2000 and above.