Memphis center goes down

VtPilot

VtPilot

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VtPilot
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070925/D8RSO8LG1.html



MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) - Communications equipment failed Tuesday at a regional air-traffic control center, shutting down all airline traffic within 250 miles of Memphis and causing a ripple effect across the country that grounded dozens of passenger and cargo flights.
The problem started when a major telephone line to the Memphis center went out at 12:35 p.m. EST. The Federal Aviation Administration said air-traffic control operations were back to normal about three hours later.
Air-traffic control centers in adjacent regions handled flights that were already in the air when the problem was discovered. "The airspace was completely cleared by 1:30 (p.m.) Eastern time," FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said.
 
VtPilot said:
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070925/D8RSO8LG1.html



MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) - Communications equipment failed Tuesday at a regional air-traffic control center, shutting down all airline traffic within 250 miles of Memphis and causing a ripple effect across the country that grounded dozens of passenger and cargo flights.
The problem started when a major telephone line to the Memphis center went out at 12:35 p.m. EST..
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You know when I designed a national network back in 1992 I had automagic demand backup of the dedicated lines and we didn't have T1 speed DSL to every home in those days.

Ya think I should put together a proposal for the feds? Would they consider anybody not named HalibutonLockheedMartinBoeingBlackwater?
 
johnny's at it again...

180px-Stuckerportrait.jpg
 
The report I heard indicated that a number of controllers used cellphones to talk to other centers during the outage. Kudos to the controllers.
 
haha i knew you'd like that Matt.


Folks-Matt does the best Johnny impersonation. he said that he will show everyone at Gastons next year.
 
Memphis Center loses contact, uses Cell phones!

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Air traffic controllers were forced to use their personal cell phones to reroute hundreds of flights Tuesday after the Federal Aviation Administration's Memphis Center lost radar and telephone service for more than two hours, snarling air traffic in the middle of the nation.

A spokesman for FedEx, which has its hub in Memphis, Tennessee, said the package delivery company had diverted 11 aircraft to other cities. But most of its flights take off and land after 10 p.m., so FedEx expected the impact to be minimal, the spokesman said.

Air traffic was halted at 12:35 p.m. ET when a major communication line that feeds all the telephones at the FAA's Memphis Center failed, said FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen.

Service was restored at 3 p.m.

The malfunction, which occurred inside a telephone company's switching office, made it impossible for air controllers at FAA's Memphis Center to communicate normally with adjoining centers to hand off control of flights, Bergen said.

In addition, three of nine long-range radar systems were lost, causing the FAA to temporarily ground traffic within a 250-mile radius of the center, affecting flights in seven states, Bergen said.

Adjacent centers in Atlanta, Georgia; Indianapolis, Indiana; Kansas City, Missouri; and Fort Worth, Texas; were pitching in to try to reroute planes, she said.

There was no indication the failure was deliberate, she said.

Doug Church, a spokesman for the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, called the failure "a major safety problem."

At the time of the outage, controllers "were thrust into an immensely chaotic situation in which they had to use personal cell phones to talk to other air traffic control facilities about specific flights that they could not communicate with themselves," he said.

"Significant delays" resulted at airports in the middle of the country, including Dallas-Fort Worth, Atlanta and Charlotte, North Carolina, he said.

Memphis Center's airspace includes 100,000 square miles of airspace, covering Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi and parts of Alabama and Kentucky.

Church predicted that flight operations in the affected area "are not going to be 'normal' for quite some time."

A spokesman for Northwest Airlines said the impact on the airline was "pretty minor," with 13 flights canceled and 19 others diverted out of 740 scheduled flights for the day.

A spokeswoman for Delta Air Lines said it canceled six flights and rerouted several others as a result of the incident.
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Link

Well for once Cell Phones became a valuable tool instead of just being an annoyance, and second, I would not want to be the Air Traffic Controller or the pilot when everything went down in Memphis Center.
 
Re: Memphis Center loses contact, uses Cell phones!

Wonder if the phone switching center is run by Verizon....
 
Re: Memphis Center loses contact, uses Cell phones!

Tarheel Pilot said:
Well for once Cell Phones became a valuable tool instead of just being an annoyance, and second, I would not want to be the Air Traffic Controller or the pilot when everything went down in Memphis Center.
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ZLA has gone off the air a couple of times, too. Cell phones were used there to coordinate with adjoining Centers and TRACONs, too. Sounds like it's a thought-out backup plan.

Regards,
Joe
 
Re: Memphis Center loses contact, uses Cell phones!

Joe B said:
ZLA has gone off the air a couple of times, too. Cell phones were used there to coordinate with adjoining Centers and TRACONs, too. Sounds like it's a thought-out backup plan.

Regards,
Joe
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I saw the articles but they don't mention loss of VHF, so I assume everybody could still talk to the airplane.

SO my questions: Does the airport revert to class E (or G) ? Does it remain A because there are still controllers (presumably with Mark II eyballs) on duty?

I assume they divert traffic because they are on IFR plans and they no longer have adequate terminal radar service. Could VFR traffic continue to use the airport?
 
Re: Memphis Center loses contact, uses Cell phones!

Dart said:
I saw the articles but they don't mention loss of VHF, so I assume everybody could still talk to the airplane.

SO my questions: Does the airport revert to class E (or G) ? Does it remain A because there are still controllers (presumably with Mark II eyballs) on duty?

I assume they divert traffic because they are on IFR plans and they no longer have adequate terminal radar service. Could VFR traffic continue to use the airport?
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Not sure exactly what you're asking. I assume when ask if the "airport" reverts to class E (or G), you were referring to the Class B. Since it was Memphis Center (rather than Memphis Approach) that had the outage, it wasn't an issue. Even if Approach had an outage, I don't know of any provision for downgrading Class B airspace (as opposed to Class C airspace, which goes away if radar isn't available). Radar is not required for controlling IFR traffic (though you can control a lot more planes with it than without it), but the ability to communicate is.
 
tonycondon said:
haha i knew you'd like that Matt.


Folks-Matt does the best Johnny impersonation. he said that he will show everyone at Gastons next year.
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Not enough alcohol in the world...





On the other hand...I might consider it for free airplane rides :)
 
wsuffa said:
The report I heard indicated that a number of controllers used cellphones to talk to other centers during the outage. Kudos to the controllers.
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Yeah, and they banned cell phones in the control room at TRACONs, Towers, and Centers. Given the mentality of the F.A.A. management, those controllers who used their own cell phones will likely be reprimanded for having them in the control room!

The following may get me in a lot of trouble, but I will post it anyway. This is a direct result of the contract maintenance. (Contract = Lowest bidder) These problems didn't occur when the F.A.A. had their own technicians doing the work.

As I posted in another thread, there used to be over 16,000 technicians employed by the F.A.A. Now there are about 6,000. Since it is going contract, there will no longer be specialists. You will get someone who many not realize how critical this equipment is, since this may be a sideline and not their main occupation.

Thank the Harris Corporation for that outage.
 
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