Reuters reports that last week's computer glitch at a California air traffic control center that led officials to halt takeoffs at Los Angeles International Airport was caused by a U-2 spy plane still in use by the US military, passing through air space monitored by the Los Angeles Air Route Traffic Control Center that appears to have overloaded ERAM, a computer system at the center. According to NBC News, computers at the center began operations to prevent the U-2 from colliding with other aircraft, even though the U-2 was flying at an altitude of 60,000 feet and other airplanes passing through the region's air space were miles below. FAA technical specialists resolved the specific issue that triggered the problem on Wednesday, and the FAA has put in place mitigation measures as engineers complete development of software changes," said the agency in a statement. "The FAA will fully analyze the event to resolve any underlying issues that contributed to the incident and prevent a reoccurrence." The U.S. Air Force is still flying U-2s, but plans to retire them within the next few years. The U-2 was slated for retirement in 2006 in favor of the unmanned Global Hawk Block 30 system, before the Air Force pulled an about-face two years ago and declared the Global Hawk too expensive and insufficient for the needs of combatant commanders.
(Score: 5, Funny) by Dunbal on Monday May 05 2014, @11:07AM
I guess the computer system can only deal with aircraft up to 32767 feet and this baby at 65536 feet caused a sign error that crashed the program?
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday May 05 2014, @11:22AM
More likely something best described by
70e3 - ( 2 ** 16 ) = 4500 or so, then a massive freakout because there's a U-2 at 70000 ft and a 777 at 4500 ft, although they never approach closer than 12 miles or so.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday May 05 2014, @05:25PM
So that's how that Malaysian flight vanished...
ATC told them "climb to 340", and the sign error sent them to -1700 ft!!!
.
Note to self: tell my next pilot not to exceed FL320.