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.

http://www.newsday.com/ap/rnmpne1r.htm

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), February 18, 2000

Answers

Passengers angered by America West delays Michael Ging/The Arizona Republic

Stranded passengers are seen at Phoenix's Sky Harbor International Airport Friday morning. America West Airlines was forced to cancel more than 100 flights nationwide after a computer system that prepares flight plans for pilots and crews quit working.

By Peter Corbett and Yoji Cole The Arizona Republic Feb. 18, 2000

America West says it handed out 1,500 hotel vouchers for passengers stranded in Phoenix by a computer glitch that crippled its flight schedule Thursday and today.

But about a thousand travelers chose to camp out overnight in Terminal 4 at Sky Harbor International Airport, officials said.

Phoenix firefighters provided pillows and blankets for travelers, and airport police worked five extra hours overnight, airport spokeswoman Suzanne Luber said.

America West spokeswoman Patty Nowack said the faulty computer system has been repaired, but not before about 130 flights nationwide were canceled in the past two days. About 2,000 passengers were affected, Nowack said.

The system that failed provides flight briefing information, including the flight path of the plane, weather conditions, information and statistics on the plane and specific instruction for the flight crew.

The Tempe-based carrier expects its schedule to return to normal today and operate smoothly over the busy Presidents Day holiday weekend.

But by noon today, Luber said, hundreds of passengers still were waiting for America West flights out of Terminal 4.

And tempers were beginning to fray.

As America West agents at one gate announced they were going to give $100 vouchers to passengers on a delayed flight to Las Vegas, people began shouting, "No!"

"I don't want your $100!" yelled David Harloff, 38, of Toledo, Ohio. "The voucher won't do me any good. I won't fly with America West again."

Harloff, whose flight from Toledo was to arrive in Phoenix at 11 p.m., didn't get in until 2 a.m., too late for his connecting flight to Las Vegas.

America West scheduled an additional flight to Las Vegas that was supposed to leave at 7 a.m. to accommodate passengers stuck in Phoenix, but the flight crew didn't arrive until late morning. Passengers finally boarded about 10 a.m.

Laurel Latourneau of Columbus, Ohio, got in at 3:30 a.m. and was supposed to leave for Vegas on the 7 a.m. flight. She and her husband and two small daughters spent at the night at the airport.

"What happened is inexcusable," Latourneau said. "People are angry because America West wasted a least a day of their vacation. They haven't offered us anything."

Latourneau said people were sleeping everywhere in the terminal. She saw one woman sleeping behind the customer service counter with her elderly mother and two small children.

Many of the hotels that America West gave vouchers for were full, so people had to return to the terminal.

Mark Churchill, 28, of Washington, D.C., was bumped from his original flight out of Baltimore on Thursday and put on a later flight.

"Instead of leaving at 6:30, the flight left at 10:30 Eastern time," Churchill said. "I missed my connectors to Vegas."

Churchill, who had taken two days off work, was to meet friends in Vegas this morning. They had planned to rent a car and drive to Lake Tahoe for a ski weekend.

Churchill said he spent at least $30 on his cell phone and calling cards trying to reach his friends, who were waiting for him in Vegas. He ended up sleeping on the terminal floor.

"It was comical," said Churchill, who said America West was just pacifying people, not giving them any real information.

"Come out and show me a flight schedule, don't say, 'How are you doing?' I missed my flight. How do you think I'm doing?"

Monica Wise, 40, a Phoenix resident and first-time America West flier, was supposed to leave at 11:33 a.m. for Seattle, but her flight was canceled. She was put on a Southwest flight scheduled to leave at 2:30 p.m., too late for her to make her meeting in Seattle. But she remains upbeat.

"You just have to grin and bear it," Wise said. "Things like this just happen."

Luber said she has never seen anything like it, with passengers trying to sleep all over the airport. Airport police stayed on duty about five extra hours.

The scene was repeated in Las Vegas, where about 24 flights were affected, according to McCarran International Airport spokeswoman Hilarie Grey.

Some passengers slept in an airport conference room, while America West put others up in hotels, she said.

As America West tries to get back on schedule today, it is also facing winter storms in the northern Midwest that could significantly back up flights.

Northwest Airlines announced that it has canceled 213 flights today already in and out of its hub in Detroit.

Continental Airlines is cutting an unspecified number of flights at its Cleveland and New York hubs.

America West spokesman Steve Johnson said problems for hundreds of travelers began about 11 a.m. Thursday when the airline began to have trouble with a computer system that provides flight briefing information for pilots.

A backup system also failed, and employees were forced to prepare the briefings manually, which took far longer, he said.

The problem was not caused by any Y2K-related problems or sabotage, Johnson said.

The backup system was working by 7 p.m., but by that time, flights were backed up throughout the system, he said.

The airline brought in extra workers to provide customers' assistance, and other workers stayed overtime, he said.

"I'm not trying to suggest that anyone deserves a pat on the back for this, but given the circumstances, we did the best that could have been done," Johnson said.

The problem was made worse because flights on other carriers have been full heading into the Presidents Day weekend, and they could not accommodate America West passengers.

There has also been a run on rental cars at the airport, Luber said, with travelers saying they were driving as far as Salt Lake

City.http://www.azcentral.com/news/0218amwestupdate.shtml

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), February 18, 2000.