The manner in which the Heathrow Airport had to be shut down owing to computer failure must send alarm bells to all the airlines of the world. While appreciating that the glitch was handled well by the airport authorities, imagine the colossal work that must have been undertaken to tide over the resultant situation viz.:-
* immediate diversion of flights in the air to alternate destinations and instructing subsequent
flights coming up for departure from various destinations to be rescheduled
* ensuring the availability of intra-airport transportation and catering support for the additional
passengers
* arrangements for their stay
* reschedule their onward flight plans.
Besides the Heathrow airport, the ones at Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester and Stansted also service the city of London which must have contributed in greatly reducing the after effects of the chaos.
What amazes me about the whole incident are the following inputs:-
* a technical fault in the flight data system at its Swanswick center in Hampshire was the problem
* the software used in the system was of the '60s vintage
* uses the computer language 'Jovial' which is not in use now and a lot of money is spent on
training computer professionals on the language!
My take.
(a) I thought that India, being a developing country with scarce resources, could not afford the state-of-the-art systems and consequently relied on comparatively obsolete technology to derive maximum benefits, by effective management of the existing systems. But et too, England? What a fall of the once mighty kingdom that ruled the world from the west to the east!
(b) But what was the cause of the computer's failure? The bottom line is that the best of technology
can fail!
Tailpiece.
I shudder to think of such a breakdown in any of our airports. Perhaps, the comparatively less number of flights that we handle could be a plus point!
* immediate diversion of flights in the air to alternate destinations and instructing subsequent
flights coming up for departure from various destinations to be rescheduled
* ensuring the availability of intra-airport transportation and catering support for the additional
passengers
* arrangements for their stay
* reschedule their onward flight plans.
Besides the Heathrow airport, the ones at Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester and Stansted also service the city of London which must have contributed in greatly reducing the after effects of the chaos.
What amazes me about the whole incident are the following inputs:-
* a technical fault in the flight data system at its Swanswick center in Hampshire was the problem
* the software used in the system was of the '60s vintage
* uses the computer language 'Jovial' which is not in use now and a lot of money is spent on
training computer professionals on the language!
My take.
(a) I thought that India, being a developing country with scarce resources, could not afford the state-of-the-art systems and consequently relied on comparatively obsolete technology to derive maximum benefits, by effective management of the existing systems. But et too, England? What a fall of the once mighty kingdom that ruled the world from the west to the east!
(b) But what was the cause of the computer's failure? The bottom line is that the best of technology
can fail!
Tailpiece.
I shudder to think of such a breakdown in any of our airports. Perhaps, the comparatively less number of flights that we handle could be a plus point!
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