Posted on 05/03/2014 1:15:20 PM PDT by george76
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, Calif. The L.A. Center handles landings and departures at the region’s major airports, including Los Angeles International (LAX), San Diego and Las Vegas.
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.
Though the exact technical causes are not known, the spy plane’s altitude and route apparently overloaded a computer system called ERAM, which generates display data for air-traffic controllers. Back-up computer systems also failed.
As a result, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had to stop accepting flights into airspace managed by the L.A. Center, issuing a nationwide ground stop that lasted for about an hour and affected thousands of passengers.
...
There were also delays at the airports in Burbank, Long Beach, Ontario and Orange County and at other airports across the Southwestern U.S.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...
oops, ny bad
“Fry” isn’t the correct word.
60,000 - 32,768 = 27,232
If one part of the system is so old that it can only handle 16-bit math and uses one sign bit, then it is limited to numbers between +32767 and -32768.
A reading of 60,000 would have overflowed its bits and registered as something in the range of 27,000 which is around where a typical jet might fly.
I wonder if this might be the cause.
I call BS.
Well at least it won’t affect the game tonight. No one has to fly in.
Could be! Similar to the Y2K problem.
That's what we were taught to do at culinary school.
/johnny
I agree. More than likely, if anything, EMI from the old Hughes RADAR Systems Group (now Raytheon) or Hughes Space and Comm (now Boeing Space Systems) facilities across the street. I used to open up the domes to test my microwave systems after 2AM to avoid EMI from the FAA RADAR across the street at LAX.
+1
If it was a standard Mode C reply to the ATC radar, it looks like they designed it to go to 126,700 ft. in 100 ft. increments.
Now if they had a problem with the D2 bit in the reply, that would happen at 62,800 ft.
http://www.airsport-corp.com/modecascii.txt
...culinary school is just so incredibly comprehensive...
“I graduated from Yale”
Oh? Really?
“Well, probably not the one you are thinking of,
I went to locksmith school.”
My cousin flunked out of dairy science.
He was an utter failure.
I didn't notice any problem. In fact, not only did my microwave oven continue to function but my watch also successfully changed the date to 1/1/2000 without blowing up my wrist.......
Even my stupid alarm clock went off without a hitch........bummer!
I think it is more likely to be a programing problem. FAA is well known for bad programing.
The U2 was redesigned with almost 30’ more wingspan to fly even higher. They will be here for a long time.
Could be! Similar to the Y2K problem.
Absolutely nothing happened for Y2K. I was so disappointed. I was in a ARTCC basement on overtime and nothing happened.
I milked my share of Bovines but don’t you mean “udder”? :-)
The Iranians, Chicoms and Ruskies will be glad to know about this.
/johnny
/johnny
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