Not that big, the hole... as flow management procedures have been implemented. (Will you have another slice ?)
Can it be called a system "failure" ?
Some systems can deal with up to N tracks. They just choose a random track and delete it when they reach N+1. You lose a track, but the system still works. That's the way it was created. Not a failure...
Usually, N is big enough to deal with everyday's life.
And beancounters will tell us : "Statistics show that this event did not occur ! At least, it shouldn't occur more than once every 10000000000000(ish) years..."
Would the capacity loss (85 per cent ?
) have been this huge with an ATC system based on paper strips (not as much automated) ?
