Newsday

(for educational purposes only)

"PHOENIX (AP) -- America West Airlines canceled 86 flights nationwide, many of them in Phoenix, because a computer system that prepares flight plans for pilots and crews wasn't working.

Spokeswoman Patty Nowack said Thursday's computer problem has been fixed and never posed a safety threat. Fifty flights were canceled Thursday and an additional 36 today.

``They are expecting by midday, we will be back on an on-time schedule,'' Nowack said.

There was no immediate word on how many passengers were affected.

The computer that malfunctioned normally provides information including weather, statistics on the plane and instructions for the flight crew.

Suzanne Luber, spokeswoman for Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, said the cancellations forced hundreds of passengers to camp out at the airport Thursday night.

(PROFILE (CO:America West Holdings Corp; TS:AWA; IG:AIR;) )

AP-NY-02-18-00 0903EST"

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), February 18, 2000

Answers

The morning TV news showed pictures of long lines at the airline counters in Seattle. They said 2 or 3 airlines were affected because they were interconnected somehow. One man that was interviewed said he called in this am and they said all was ok, when he got to the airport the computers were still down and no flights (about 9 am PST). Things looked pretty chaotic at the airport.

-- Sammie (sammiex0@yahoo.com), February 18, 2000.

Thanks, Sammie. Keep us posted if you learn anything about what caused the glitch.

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), February 18, 2000.

I bet those 86 flights were scheduled to be on MD-80's too. This will give them some more time to try to replace all the non-compliant chips in the autopilot before they all fall out of the sky.

-- Hawk (flyin@high.again), February 18, 2000.

So they finally decided to listen to ya, huh? Did you give them the part numbers, too?

-- Mikey2k (mikey2k@he.wont.eat.it), February 18, 2000.