Will Y2K skies be friendly?

Although there is much speculation surrounding the safety of commercial airliners when the Y2K millennium bug hits, the Federal Aviation Administration says that at the turn of the millennium, the skies will still be the safest place to travel.

“We believe we have the Y2K problem in hand and that the traveling public needn’t be concerned about flying on December 31, 1999, or any time thereafter,” said William Shumann, a spokesperson for the FAA.

The Y2K millennium bug is the computer problem caused by the method in which computer dates have been stored. Until recently, memory for computers was at a premium price, and so to conserve it, dates were stored with two digits instead of four. Thus, 1998 would be recorded as 98 and so forth.

Because the year 2000 will be recorded on these systems as 00, some computers and embedded chips won’t know if it’s the year 2000 or 1900, causing vital systems to either misinterpret data or shut down altogether.

Because of this problem, the FAA has been working to renovate the air traffic control system since summer 1997. On Feb. 4 of this year, the FAA created the FAA Year 2000 Program Office with its No.1 goal being to ensure that the National Airspace System and other core FAA systems will operate reliably and safely throughout the year 2000 and beyond.

“We’ve looked at all the FAA computer systems,” said Shumann. “We know what needs to be fixed, and we’re in the process of fixing it.” Shumann went on to explain that out of the 645 computer systems of the FAA across the nation, 430 of them were considered “mission critical,” that is, they are essential to the safe operations of air traffic control systems. Of those 430 systems, only two more need to be renovated, and Shumann says they will be by the end of December.

After renovation of all the systems is complete, all systems will be tested and certified.

“By the end of March 1999, we will have tested all of the systems,” said Shumann. “They will be Y2K certified by the end of June.”

Of course, having Y2K certified computers at air traffic control is only one aspect of flight safety. Computers and embedded chips that help pilots to fly the aircraft need to be Y2K compliant as well.

Boeing, the world leader in aerospace technology that makes the 727, 737, 747, and DC-10 class of commercial airlines, has been working on the Year 2000 problem for more than five years. The company has announced that its planes will be safe for travel in 2000. “Boeing airplanes will safely fly without any Year 2000 disruptions,” said Boeing.

Boeing has also been working closely with all airlines that currently use its planes. “We’re in direct communication with all of our airline operations,” said Mary Jean Olsen, spokesperson for Boeing Commercial Airplanes, Year 2000. “We’ve notified the airlines many times on what we’ve found and how they can fix it.”

What Boeing has found are three minor problems that have to do with the flight management computers and the older inertial navigation systems.

“The pilots will get a nuisance message on the scratch pad that says ‘NAV database out of date’ when, in fact, they are not out of date,” said Olsen. “Every airline updates their flight navigation computers on a monthly basis.” In any case, Olsen says that the “nuisance message” won’t cause any real problems when the planes are in the air.

One of the airlines working closely with Boeing is Southwest. Kristie Kerr, spokesperson for Southwest, says that all aspects of flight operations and back office operations are being checked. She is confident that things will be “business as usual” for Southwest when the clock strikes midnight Jan. 1, 2000. “We don’t anticipate cutting any of our flights,” Kerr said.

Of course, national flights are only one concern for airline companies. The traffic control systems in other countries need to be Y2K compliant as well for safe air travel from nation to nation.

Kip Smith, an expert in year 2000 issues for Delta Airlines, has been working closely with the national Air Transport Association (ATA) as well as the International Air Transport Association (IATA). Smith says that these two organizations have been handling all information concerning the Y2K status of airports around the nation and world. This service of the ATA and IATA makes it possible for all airlines to plan Y2K-safe schedules beyond the Year 2000.

“We will access the information database (of the ATA and IATA) to determine whether or not we think it’s safe to continue our schedule as it now stands for the Year 2000,” said Smith.

Although IATA is still in the information gathering stage, Smith said that IATA should be done with their gathering of information before the middle of next year. During the middle of next year, Delta will make their final decision regarding international flights.

“At this juncture, we don’t see any impact on any of our schedules, international or domestic,” Smith said.

Concerning the safety of Delta’s fleet, Smith told WorldNetDaily that there are no safety-of-flight issues for the year 2000 because they’ve worked closely with Boeing to fix any and all problems and have also rechecked all systems themselves to make sure everything was safe and ready to go in 2000.

“We intend to continue to have a safe and successful operation to and through the new millennium,” said Smith. “Travelers should have no concerns at all.”

American Airlines also has been working hard on the Y2K problem.

“Our primary objective is to be sure that we can safely operate on January 1, 2000, just as we strive to do today,” said American Airlines Chairman Donald Carty. “We are well on our way to achieving this goal, and working hard to be sure that the industry is as well.”

American, which first seriously attacked the Y2K problem in 1995, plans to spend somewhere between $215-250 million to fix any Y2K-related problems. Like Delta, American has worked closely with the ATA and the IATA and plans to have all of its systems Y2K ready by December 31, 1998.

“We’re nearing the end of our process and intend to be running smoothly long before the turn of the century,” said Carty.

Sharing the confidence of the airlines, Olsen said that Boeing is certain that things will run smoothly in 2000, and believes that the FAA has done a good job of handling the problem. “We feel confident that Jane Garvey (head of the FAA) is going to do it,” said Olsen.