LOS ANGELES (CNN) –A very old spy plane and a very new computer system played pivotal roles in last week’s computer glitch that temporarily paralyzed flight operations in California, FAA officials said Monday.
The problem involved a U-2 aircraft, the type famed for conducting reconnaissance missions over the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
A Federal Aviation Administration computer system interpreted the U-2′s flight path at a very high altitude as if it were flying in a much lower and more crowded airspace.
The computer — which anticipates the flight path and looks for possible conflicts such as other aircraft or restricted airspace — was overtaxed by the many flight changes the U-2 had plotted, officials said.
That work used much of the computer’s memory and interrupted its other flight-processing functions, FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said in a statement.
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U-2 spy plane blamed for computer glitch that grounded Calif. flights | Q13 FOX News
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U-2 spy plane blamed for computer glitch that grounded Calif. flights | Q13 FOX News