FAA restores flight plan processing system failure

Air traffic controllers on the ground at major airports are getting no automated flight plan information and have to enter that information manually - a cumbersome and time-consuming process.

In the New York airspace, controllers are forced to put 20 miles of space between aircraft while airport efficiency is being cut by at least half at places like New York-JFK.

The National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) said that the problem was a failure of the National Airspace Data Interchange Network, which handles computerized flight processing plans for every flight in the country. The system is located in two locations, Atlanta and Salt Lake City which both of them suffered failures.

The failure primarily affected air travel out of airports serving East Coast cities such as Atlanta, Boston, New York, and Philadelphia but the impact on West Coast cities is believed to have been minimal. According to the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA), all destinations in the Western half of the United States only suffered delays of 15 minutes or less.

"Air traffic controllers on the ground at major airports are getting no automated flight plan information and have to enter that information manually, a cumbersome and time-consuming process," said the NATCA in a statement.

However, the FAA assured that the failure did not compromise the safety of air travel.

"This is not a safety issue," said an FAA spokesperson via e-mail. "We have radar coverage and communications with planes."