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Air traffic sell-off hit by obsolete computers

By Barrie Clement, Transport Editor

23 June 2000

The Government's plan to part-privatise air traffic control sustained a severe blow yesterday with the disclosure that key elements of the computer system that crashed last weekend date from the 1970s and are not due to be replaced for seven years.

The news that critical parts of the software are up to 30 years old and run on hardware no longer manufactured could deter the private-sector companies asked to take over 46 per cent of National Air Traffic Services (Nats).

The failure, which led to hundreds of flight cancellations and delays, is believed to involve a latent bug in the original software that dates back more than 20 years, according to Computer Weekly magazine. The publication says this system will play "a pivotal role" in the switch to the much-delayed new air traffic control centre at Swanwick, in Hampshire, which is now due to open in spring 2002.

Any further glitches in the system in the next few months could add to ministerial discomfort over the sale. Passenger traffic into and out of Britain is increasing by 5 per cent a year and the system is stretched to its limits during the holiday season.

The failure of the flight data-processing system (FDPS) last Saturday was at the main air traffic control centre at West Drayton, west London. Computer Weekly said that when Swanwick opens, its air traffic controllers will still receive their flight-data information from the FDPS at West Drayton, which will also be used to feed flight information to Scotland's new control centre. The magazine said today: "In the House of Commons this week, Transport Minister Nick Raynsford described the FDPS as a 'relatively modern computer system'.

"The minister may have been unaware that the FDPS runs on an IBM mainframe computer, of which production was ceased in 1987, and that the software is based on the 'Jovial' programming language from the 1970s."

The system provides print-outs to controllers on the position of aircraft over Britain, but on Saturday staff were forced to write out strips. The overall capacity of Britain's air traffic control system was cut by three-quarters and the disruption hit all main airports, including Heathrow, Stansted and Gatwick, with a knock-on lasting 48 hours. About 100 flights at Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen were affected.

The #600m Swanwick centre should have opened in 1996 but problems with computer software have left it still two years from completion. During the changeover from West Drayton, the old FDPS will continue to function.

A spokesman for Nats apologised for the breakdown at the weekend but insisted it was a "very robust" system which had been continually updated. He said it would continue to play a "pivotal role" until it is replaced in 2007.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/UK/Transport/2000-06/airtraf230600.shtml

-- (Dee360Degree@aol.com), June 23, 2000