Computer glitch disrupted US air traffic

Early yesterday morning, air traffic on the east coast of the United States and the south of the country was severely disrupted . About 3,500 flights had to be postponed, almost all flights were delayed at the busiest American airport in Atlanta, and the interval between aircraft was increased from 13 to 32 kilometers at the New York airport, as a result of which the airport's capacity fell by half. As it turned out , the cause was a computer failure, namely the failure of one router.

We are talking about a router in the computer center NADIN (National Airspace Data Interchange Network), which is located in Salt Lake City. The NADIN system is engaged in the processing of flight plans: it receives them from each aircraft in electronic form and transmits them to dispatchers monitoring the position of aircraft on radars. In addition, NADIN processes weather and wind information.

Due to a glitch, dispatchers had to take flight plans by phone and manually enter them into the system. In addition, the almost complete stop of the airport in Atlanta (caused also by bad weather conditions) led to a chain reaction of delays at many other airports (the main US airports are indicated in the illustration above).