Radios Out Just Seconds, Faa Says

A spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration says air traffic controllers and pilots were out of touch for only a few seconds when a new computer-operated system failed last week.

Initial reports said radio communications were out for about one minute last Friday. But Dick Meyer, spokesman for the FAA, said Thursday that after talking with controllers and reviewing records, it was determined that it took only a few seconds for the controller on duty to plug into a backup system.

Communications between air traffic controllers and pilots were silenced in a 200,000-square-mile area, including all of Washington state.

The outage was so brief that pilots probably didn’t notice it, Meyer said. The controller on duty quickly switched to a backup, then to the old system, which won’t be disconnected for another year.

Friday’s problem, disclosed Tuesday by the local chapter of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, resulted from a software glitch within the $1.4 billion computer-driven system at the regional air traffic control center in suburban Auburn, Wash. The system has been in operation for two months.

There were no accidents or near-collisions as a result of the blackout, the FAA said.