They being Stewart Alsop from the Big Thinkers profile:

http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2273009,00.html?chkpt=zdnnp1ms

{snip}

Alsop: Oh, hoax, very definitely. There's this sort of fearful scenario that on December 31st you're going to get on an eight-hour flight, and right at midnight or a minute after midnight your flight's just going to tip over and go tunnel right into the ground because all the computer systems out there are going to stop working, and it's just bull. It's not going to happen.

{end snip}

-- (oldyeller@sanfran.com), June 10, 1999

Answers

Whew! I was really worried about that.

-- Lane Core Jr. (elcore@sgi.net), June 11, 1999.

The real reasons why planes falling from the sky will not be much of a worry in January 2000: 1) I will not be flying on a plane after 8/20/1999, and neither will a lot of other people, no matter how cheap, due to perceived increased riskiness (flunks risk/benefit analysis). 2) Many people will have used their money for preps instead. 3) More people still will wish to stay close to home, even if they have the option to fly. 4) Embedded systems in aircraft making . 5) Failures in production and supply of avgas; ability to transport and pay for it will surely be greatly reduced. 6) FAA using its contingency air traffic control system (binoculars) makes commercial flying considerably less practical. 7) Gov't takes many of resources (fuel, planes, fuel, funding, pilots, possibly the best airports) for its own use. 8) Much less economic justification to fly for the vast majority of people. 9) Unwillingness/inability to travel to/from airports by many people. After I see my parents and sister this summer, I am resigned to not seeing them for a long time, quite possibly years. Others will reach similiar conclusions...

site: www.y2ksafeminnesota.com

-- MinnesotaSmith (y2ksafeminnesota@hotmail.com), June 11, 1999.