I was wondering if the increasing problems with MD-80's and other planes are due to a parts shortage. I told a friend before the New Year that it would be much more dangerous to fly 3-1-00 than 1-1-00, due to spare parts shortages caused by glitches in the Just in Time system, and the airlines running the planes at far less than 100%.

-- Kevin Burns (kbdabear@aol.com), February 21, 2000

Answers

Kevin, But why wouldn't it be other planes, too, then?

-- Mara (MaraWayne@aol.com), February 21, 2000.

Kevin and Mara, I also thought JIT would be a big problem. Maybe it is not showing up as soon as we expected. Maybe it is. Just watch. The hideous, ugly, old fat bitch ain't sang yet...I don't think.

-- canthappen (n@ysayer.com), February 22, 2000.

Mara, Good point.. If you go to Glitch central and Click Airlines follow the history you will see that it really is happening to other types of planes too. for example, Luftsthana(sp?) in Germany just grounded a fleet of Boeing 757s. There have also been problems with DC-9s and smaller aircraft. I believe we are witnessing manifestations of the Year 2000 problem in a variety of systems in an industry that is just very computer intensive and therefore sensitive, the air industry. In manu- facturing (where FIFO might have been transformed to LIFO) causing old outdated parts to be used, in maintenence of good aircraft because the maintenence schedules are hosed. In shipping and control as well. I believe this will continue until such time as we have rolled far enough past the rollover to allow the problems to clear. Until then I wouldn't rec- commend flying.. There were problems involving hundreds of planes over the weekend and the problem rate has appeared to escalate.

-- slammer (billslammer@yahoo.com), February 22, 2000.

Slammer: Do you have a "Glitch Central" URL? Thanks...

-- 1 (1@2.3), February 22, 2000.

Here it is:

http://www.ciaosys tems.com/glitchcentral.htm



-- Jim McAteer (jim_mcateer@hotmail.com), February 22, 2000.