IF YOU are thinking of celebrating New Year鈥檚 Eve 1999 on foreign soil, pick
your destination carefully. Parts of the globe may be inaccessible by air
because the millennium bug will have put some air traffic control systems out of
action.
The bug affects computers that use only two digits to represent years. When
the date arrives at 鈥�00鈥� for the millennium, these systems are likely to crash
or produce misleading information.
Although airlines and air traffic controllers in the developed world are
working hard to find all the computer systems that are likely to suffer from the
bug, they fear that some countries do not have the funds or expertise to perform
an effective search. Planes that fly some international routes at the turn of
the millennium may be grounded in case the air traffic control (ATC) systems in
those areas are unsafe.
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鈥淓ven though we might be able to deal with millennium bugs, we do not control
the whole transport chain,鈥� says a spokesman for the Dutch airline KLM. 鈥淚f we
fly over parts of the world where there are doubts about the ATC, we will not be
flying.鈥� KLM is planning a summit meeting next spring, to which other airlines
and national and international air traffic control bodies will be invited.
鈥淭his is not one airline鈥檚 problem. It affects everybody,鈥� says the
spokesman. 鈥淭he knowledge we gain by finding solutions to the problem should be
蝉丑补谤别诲.鈥�
KLM has been investigating the computer systems on board its jets since 1995,
he adds. The largest jets can have up to 160 systems on board.