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LAX closed due to computer issue ?


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LAX closed due to computer issue ?

Old 30th April 2014 | 21:50
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LAX closed due to computer issue ?

From twitter feed:
FAA issued a ground stop at LAX due to computer issues. Contact them for details.
Anyone with more info ?
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Old 30th April 2014 | 21:55
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Computer issue affecting ATC for high-altitude aircraft -

Flights already diverting to SFO and being held at other airports. Some aircraft still arriving - but no departures.
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Old 30th April 2014 | 22:05
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https://twitter.com/flyLAXairport
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Old 30th April 2014 | 22:12
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From the Twitter:

"ground halt" on all flights at the following airports: BOS, BWI, DCA, EWR, FLL, JFK, LAS, LAX, LGA, MCO, MIA, PHL, TEB

And just now...

UPDATE: FAA seems to have fixed the computer issues at the affected airports. Ground stops are being lifted.

Last edited by Polikarpov; 30th April 2014 at 22:27.
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Old 30th April 2014 | 23:23
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sounds like the ''canned'' flight plans for all the airline flights could not be inputed directly computer to computer and one guy at one terminal had to do it by hand...hundreds of times.

I've seen this happen before...what a mess!
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Old 1st May 2014 | 01:33
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Seems the cause was caught on camera;

http://pbs.twimg.com/media/BmgJjKWCYAArSvL.jpg
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Old 3rd May 2014 | 15:39
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U-2 spy plane responsible for LAX ATC glitch

NBC News - Breaking News & Top Stories - Latest World, US & Local News

On Wednesday at about 2 p.m., according to sources, a U-2 spy plane, the same type of aircraft that flew high-altitude spy missions over Russia 50 years ago, passed through the airspace monitored by the L.A. Air Route Traffic Control Center in Palmdale, Ca. The L.A. Center handles landings and departures at the region’s major airports, including Los Angeles International (LAX), San Diego and Las Vegas.
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The computers at the L.A. Center are programmed to keep commercial airliners and other aircraft from colliding with each other. The U-2 was flying at 60,000 feet, but the computers were attempting to keep it from colliding with planes that were actually miles beneath it.
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Old 3rd May 2014 | 19:57
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From: wales
U2 caused LAX computer shut down

Spy Plane Fries Air Traffic Control Computers, Shuts Down LAX - NBC News
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Old 3rd May 2014 | 20:07
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From: Australia - South of where I'd like to be !
So what did they do differently this month that they didn't do the preceding 49 years ?
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Old 3rd May 2014 | 21:40
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Updated and "improved" their software perhaps?"
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Old 3rd May 2014 | 22:53
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Sounds an unlikely story but at least the US authorities are blaming a US based entity rather the "foreign hacking"
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Old 3rd May 2014 | 23:19
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same thing happened in England...same day.
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Old 3rd May 2014 | 23:43
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Well, Bono could probably fry ATC if his voice was on the mike.
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Old 4th May 2014 | 01:17
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James May using his mobile, perhaps?
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Old 4th May 2014 | 07:02
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From: Mare Nostrum
U2 is probably a cover story for a highly secretive x-plane out of Area 51.
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Old 4th May 2014 | 17:12
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From: wales
Originally Posted by Irish21
same thing happened in England...same day.
YOU need to attribute your sources (not the 1st time you have been advised ), but in this instance can't because you are wrong.

It was immigration computers that were down in UK, so away with your hints at conspiracy or global failures.

Airport chaos after UK immigration computer failure | World news | theguardian.com
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Old 6th May 2014 | 13:23
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U2 brings ATC down

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.



Read more: U-2 spy plane blamed for computer glitch that grounded Calif. flights | Q13 FOX News
Read more at U-2 spy plane blamed for computer glitch that grounded Calif. flights | Q13 FOX News
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Old 6th May 2014 | 14:47
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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.
That isn't the U-2's fault, is it? Looks like a software screw up on the ATC end.

The agency said it has added computer memory to prevent a recurrence, while others said officials are racing to install a more permanent computer patch.
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Old 6th May 2014 | 15:05
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I have a feeling that it isn't computer memory as such as truncating a flight level that was above what some software designer for the En-Route Automation Modernization (ERAM) system thought was possible. Imagine the chaos if the system had dropped a zero and called it 6000 feet. All those short term conflict alerts with the low altitude aircraft . STCAs are really really bad for controllers to get as they alert the supervisors that a controller has lost separation . And all the time the controller had nearly 9 miles vertical separation.

It will be interesting to find out what happened from someone who knows the ERAM software.

Last edited by Ian W; 6th May 2014 at 15:10. Reason: Correct acronym
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Old 6th May 2014 | 15:16
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Sounds to me like what is known in computing circles as an "integer overflow". If you use a 16-bit integer to store altitude, you can only store values between 0 and 65535. After that it wraps back to zero again. So for example 90,000 feet would end up as 90000 - 65536 = 24464 feet. That could certainly cause a few problems.
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