From: dannyb@panix.com   
      
   Mary S... you still around?   
       ========   
   eyup. That's what NBC News is claiming happened.   
        ====   
   Spy Plane Fries Air Traffic Control Computers, Shuts Down LAX   
      
   A relic from the Cold War appears to have triggered a software glitch at a   
   major air traffic control center in California Wednesday that led to delays and   
   cancellations of hundreds of flights across the country, sources familiar with   
   the incident told NBC News.   
      
   On Wednesday at about 2 p.m., according to sources, a U-2 spy plane, the same   
   type of aircraft that flew high-altitude spy missions over Russia 50 years ago,   
   passed through the airspace monitored by the L.A. Air Route Traffic Control   
   Center in Palmdale, Calif. The L.A. Center handles landings and departures at   
   the region's major airports, including Los Angeles International (LAX), San   
   Diego and Las Vegas.   
      
   The computers at the L.A. Center are programmed to keep commercial airliners   
   and other aircraft from colliding with each other. The U-2 was flying at 60,000   
   feet, but the computers were attempting to keep it from colliding with planes   
   that were actually miles beneath it.   
      
   Though the exact technical causes are not known, the spy plane's altitude and   
   route apparently overloaded a computer system called ERAM, which generates   
   display data for air-traffic controllers. Back-up computer systems also failed.   
       =====   
   rest:   
   http://www.nbcnews.com/news/investigations/spy-plane-fries-air-t   
   affic-control-computers-shuts-down-lax-n95886   
   _____________________________________________________   
   Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key   
    		     dannyb@panix.com   
   [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)