FAA Breakdown Calls for Modernization

FAA Breakdown Calls for Modernization

The chaos caused by the Federal Aviation Administration outage uncovered the agency's need for high-tech equipment. Several travelers were left disappointed as they had to experience flight delays due to the outage.


The FAA suffered a software glitch which struck at a Hampton, Ga., facility that operates the National Airspace Data Interchange Network, a system that receives flight plans from airports across much of the nation and then electronically distributes those plans to air traffic controllers. Pilots are not permitted to take off without flight-plan approval. Since the agency relies on only two centers in Salt Lake City and Atlanta, the glitch led to the shut down of the entire system.

The FAA is said to be dependent on older techology. The recent outage just proved that, somehow, the agency needs to upgrade to avoid similar occurence, even if it means spenidng billions of dollars.