United Airlines grounded worldwide due to computer problems
 

I'm sitting at the gate in MCO. United airlines just announced a world wide computer issue grounding all United flights.

WOW!
A US airline has blamed their own computers, and not the FAA or Air Traffic Control.
Are you sure you heard the announcement correctly?

edit: I put this in before the above story about the FAA "lifting the halt"
which is an article where United told CNBC that the FAA lifted the halt
so I was wrong, they did blame the FAA

darkroomsource - not sure I agree with your analysis.

which part?
that this airline blamed the FAA
or that this airline's computer caused the problems

Twitter reports of multiple/erroneous flight plans coming out of the United computer system. You can understand the problem if the company files route "alpha to bravo to charlie" and the flight crew gets paperwork saying "delta to echo to foxtrot." Happens at times but if a bunch happened at once FAA Flow Control is likely to ground stop the herd.

again, the problem was in the United computer, is that right?
and the FAA is to blame?

The FAA issued a ground stop. And then the FAA lifted the ground stop. I don't see where "blame" comes in.


ATCSCC Advisory


They did the same thing a few weeks ago when American's computers were sending bad info to the crews. Instead of sending ACARS messages to hundreds of flights it's easier to get the FAA to stop everything

The CAUSE was that their computers were sending data which was causing a problem. But they end up blaming the FAA, rather than taking the blame themselves.

This the problem with airlines in the USA (very general statement I know, but after years of flying there, I can make such a general statement with some accuracy).

For example,
in Atlanta, lightning striking the field
announcement "we have been grounded by ATC"

NO, you have been grounded by the weather, ATC is just the bearer of the bad news.

And in this case, the FAA did not cause them to not fly, their computers were the cause, the FAA was just the enforcer.
Imagine if the FAA had not stepped in?

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) :ok:

I will have a nice day, thanks.
Life has been much better since I left the USA.
And I haven't had to make an more excuses for "my countrymen".