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The concern in Washington over the FAA's mess is escalating. The story is the first disaster-in-the-making story that has received considerable press coverage.
The article identified Cong. Gordon as a Republican. He's a Democrat.
Thids story is from COMPUTERWORLD (Feb. 9).
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The FAA is so far behind on addressing its year 2000 problems that elected officials are deeply concerned that systems failures could compromise or shut down an air traffic control network responsible for monitoring thousands of commercial flights over U.S. air space each day. . .
``The country could be left at a standstill, and that could be devastating,'' said Rep. Bart Gordon (R-Tenn.). There are already predictions that large numbers of flights could be delayed, rerouted or even grounded due to year 2000 failures.
The FAA currently has a targeted completion date of November 1999, a date that is``too close'' to the year 2000 deadline, said Kenneth M. Mead, inspector general of the U.S. Department of Transportation.
That concern is spreading to the general populace as noted by a recent survey by Computerworld sister publication CIO magazine, which found that 41% of business executives won't fly on the magic date.
The situation at the FAA is so bad that its year 2000 fixes won't be completed until mid-2009, according to Stanley Graham, a consultant at Tech-Beamers, Inc. in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. . . .
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