* NJ fire knocks out air traffic data systems
* Some delays expected to stretch into Saturday
By John Crawley
WASHINGTON, June 22 (Reuters) – A fire at an air traffic
facility in New Jersey on Friday knocked out electronics that
help coordinate flights into and out of airports, and airlines
said the glitch worsened a day of heavy delays and cancellations
triggered by storms in the eastern United States.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said the early
afternoon (EDT) fire at its technical center in Atlantic City
knocked out servers and left some automated systems used to
efficiently communicate the status of airport ground operations
temporarily unavailable.
With digital information unavailable, airlines could not
plan and track their flights as quickly as they normally would
at the start of another busy summer weekend for travelers,
especially in and out of New York, the world’s busiest air
space.
The FAA said its ability to direct flights in the air was
unaffected and backup data kicked in and offered some relief for
affected operations.
But the agency’s sprawling command center outside of
Washington mainly had to coordinate airport conditions with
other agency facilities and airlines via telephone, which
maintained safe operations but slowed communications for
thousands of flights.
On a clear day, the FAA outage probably would have been less
apparent with airport conditions more predictable. But heavy
thunderstorms prompted the FAA to ground or delay flights in New
York temporarily for safety, leading to changes in airport
operations.
Any major delay in New York will affect flights elsewhere,
especially in other East Coast cities.
Delta Air Lines alone canceled 300 flights. United
Airlines, American Airlines, US Airways and
JetBlue Airways canceled large numbers of flights as
well.
The explosion and fire that witnesses said generated
towering flames forced evacuation of the FAA center and also
interrupted the agency’s Internet, including its http://www.fly.faa.gov
website and emails.
Atlantic City’s airport adjacent to the fire-damaged
facility closed temporarily, State Police said.
The cause of the fire was under investigation and FAA data
systems were not fully operational as of Friday night.
Before the fire, all three big New York-area airports halted
traffic for a time while storms passed through the area, setting
in motion a ripple effect of service problems throughout the day
that would worsen after the FAA fire, airlines said.
Bad weather also affected flights in San Francisco.
United told passengers that weather and FAA-related flight
delays and cancellations would continue into Saturday at New
York-area airports, Philadelphia and Washington.
Delta canceled 300 flights, while JetBlue Airways said it
canceled nearly 70. US Airways reported 46 mainline and more
than 200 Express flight cancellations. All three blamed weather
and the FAA outage.
American Airlines advised passengers via Twitter of long
waits in the Northeast due to the FAA glitch and storms, which
generally are the primary reason for delays and cancellations
industry wide.
“We appreciate your patience,” American tweeted to its
passengers.
