Again, american arrogance.
Paint with a broad brush much? Oh well. Strong opinions and weak minds. I wouldn't insult all brits just because one who claims
uk residency in their profile exhibits poor manners.
As I see it, this whole affair is nothing more than another tempest in a tea cup. In an effort to eliminate staff positions, companies the world over are automating many functions with computers. It's been going on for some time, you may have heard about it!
In the case of airlines, power loss, system design deficiencies, lack of redundancy, poor contingency planning and other factors sometimes conspire to cause a loss of system functionality. A simple loss of power sometimes necessitates manual intervention in order to restore operation. These breakdowns may affect reservations, dispatch or flight following functions, among others.
Breakdowns will inevitably occur from time to time. When they do, some human(s) often must intervene to restore the system to a functional state. This requires time. Meanwhile, data transmission functionality between the airline, the FAA and the aircraft may be incomplete or disabled entirely until the system is restored. The extent of the loss will be dependent upon the system architecture and nature of the failure. As a result, the airline's flights may be ground stopped. It's highly likely that any ground stop initiated for airline computer issues is accomplished at the request of the airline in question. It won't be lifted until such time as both both the airline and the FAA agree that data transmissions are restored. So in effect, FAA ATC lifts the ground stop. But it doesn't happen until data comm has been verified.
Airlines have been "blaming" others for their own problems for a looooong time, and it's become so
de rigueur that few people pay it much mind anymore. But it ALWAYS seems to generate a big news response! And the original flight schedule goes in the dustbin... All the other airlines are affected too.
To this aviator it appears that the "arrogance" emanates from the management who "went cheap" and failed to provide sufficiently robust system redundancy. Expect to see this affair repeated from time to time well into the future.
Have a nice day
darkroomsource
westhawk, (American) 